The battery recycling and cathode production company, founded by former Tesla CTO JB Straubel, has started using recycled battery materials to create energy storage solutions for AI data centers.
Read more 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 is changing the economy
There’s a lot at stake when it comes to understanding how AI is changing the economy right now. Should we be pessimistic? Optimistic? Or is the situation too nuanced for that?
Hopefully, we can point you towards some answers. Mat Honan, our editor in chief, will hold a special subscriber-only Roundtables conversation with our editor at large David Rotman, and Richard Waters, Financial Times columnist, exploring what’s happening across different markets. Register here to join us at 1pm ET on Tuesday December 9.
The event is part of the Financial Times and MIT Technology Review “The State of AI” partnership, exploring the global impact of artificial intelligence. Over the past month, we’ve been running discussions between our journalists—sign up here to receive future editions every Monday.
If you’re interested in how AI is affecting the economy, take a look at:
+ People are worried that AI will take everyone’s jobs. We’ve been here before.
+ What will AI mean for economic inequality? If we’re not careful, we could see widening gaps within countries and between them. Read the full story.
+ Artificial intelligence could put us on the path to a booming economic future, but getting there will take some serious course corrections. Here’s how to fine-tune AI for prosperity.
The AI Hype Index: The people can’t get enough of AI slop
Separating AI reality from hyped-up fiction isn’t always easy. That’s why we’ve created the AI Hype Index—a simple, at-a-glance summary of everything you need to know about the state of the industry. Take a look at this month’s edition of the index here, featuring everything from replacing animal testing with AI to our story on why AGI should be viewed as a conspiracy theory.
MIT Technology Review Narrated: How to fix the internet
We all know the internet (well, social media) is broken. But it has also provided a haven for marginalized groups and a place for support. It offers information at times of crisis. It can connect you with long-lost friends. It can make you laugh.
That makes it worth fighting for. And yet, fixing online discourse is the definition of a hard problem.
This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we’re publishing 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 How much AI investment is too much AI investment?
Tech companies hope to learn from beleaguered Intel. (WSJ $)
+ HP is pivoting to AI in the hopes of saving $1 billion a year. (The Guardian)
+ The European Central bank has accused tech investors of FOMO. (FT $)
2 ICE is outsourcing immigrant surveillance to private firms
It’s incentivizing contractors with multi-million dollar rewards. (Wired $)
+ Californian residents have been traumatized by recent raids. (The Guardian)
+ Another effort to track ICE raids was just taken offline. (MIT Technology Review)
3 Poland plans to use drones to defend its rail network from attack
It’s blaming Russia for a recent line explosion. (FT $)
+ This giant microwave may change the future of war. (MIT Technology Review)
4 ChatGPT could eventually have as many subscribers as Spotify
According to erm, OpenAI. (The Information $)
5 Here’s how your phone-checking habits could shape your daily life
You’re probably underestimating just how often you pick it up. (WP $)
+ How to log off. (MIT Technology Review)
6 Chinese drugs are coming
Its drugmakers are on the verge of making more money overseas than at home. (Economist $)
7 Uber is deploying fully driverless robotaxis in an Abu Dhabi island
Roaming 12 square miles of the popular tourist destination. (The Verge)
+ Tesla is hoping to double its robotaxi fleet in Austin next month. (Reuters)
8 Apple is set to become the world’s largest smartphone maker
After more than a decade in Samsung’s shadow. (Bloomberg $)
9 An AI teddy bear that discussed sexual topics is back on sale
But the Teddy Kumma toy is now powered by a different chatbot. (Bloomberg $)
+ AI toys are all the rage in China—and now they’re appearing on shelves in the US too. (MIT Technology Review)
10 How Stranger Things became the ultimate algorithmic TV show
Its creators mashed a load of pop culture references together and created a streaming phenomenon. (NYT $)
Quote of the day
“AI is a very powerful tool—it’s a hammer and that doesn’t mean everything is a nail.”
—Marketing consultant Ryan Bearden explains to the Wall Street Journal why it pays to be discerning when using AI.
One more thing
Are we ready to hand AI agents the keys?
In recent months, a new class of agents has arrived on the scene: ones built using large language models. Any action that can be captured by text—from playing a video game using written commands to running a social media account—is potentially within the purview of this type of system.
LLM agents don’t have much of a track record yet, but to hear CEOs tell it, they will transform the economy—and soon. Despite that, like chatbot LLMs, agents can be chaotic and unpredictable. Here’s what could happen as we try to integrate them into everything.
—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.)
+ The entries for this year’s Nature inFocus Photography Awards are fantastic.
+ There’s nothing like a good karaoke sesh.
+ Happy heavenly birthday Tina Turner, who would have turned 86 years old today.
+ Stop the presses—the hotly-contested list of the world’s top 50 vineyards has officially been announced 
Separating AI reality from hyped-up fiction isn’t always easy. That’s why we’ve created the AI Hype Index—a simple, at-a-glance summary of everything you need to know about the state of the industry.
Last year, the fantasy author Joanna Maciejewska went viral (if such a thing is still possible on X) with a post saying “I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes.” Clearly, it struck a chord with the disaffected masses.
Regrettably, 18 months after Maciejewska’s post, the entertainment industry insists that machines should make art and artists should do laundry. The streaming platform Disney+ has plans to let its users generate their own content from its intellectual property instead of, y’know, paying humans to make some new Star Wars or Marvel movies.
Elsewhere, it seems AI-generated music is resonating with a depressingly large audience, given that the AI band Breaking Rust has topped Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart. If the people demand AI slop, who are we to deny them?
An investor explains the “buy, fix, and hold” model employed by Bending Spoons and similar companies that buy distressed startups.
Read more YouTube is experimenting with a new feature that allows users to customize their home feed.
Read more The company announced last month that it would no longer allow minors to use its chat features.
Read more ChatGPT now lets you use voice and text in the same screen, making conversations feel more natural as responses and visuals appear in real time.
Read more WMG says artists and songwriters will have full control over whether and how their names, images, likenesses, voices, and compositions are used in new AI-generated music.
Read more 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 next for AlphaFold: A conversation with a Google DeepMind Nobel laureate
In 2017, fresh off a PhD on theoretical chemistry, John Jumper heard rumors that Google DeepMind had moved on from game-playing AI to a secret project to predict the structures of proteins. He applied for a job.
Just three years later, Jumper and CEO Demis Hassabis had led the development of an AI system called AlphaFold 2 that was able to predict the structures of proteins to within the width of an atom, matching lab-level accuracy, and doing it many times faster—returning results in hours instead of months.
Last year, Jumper and Hassabis shared a Nobel Prize in chemistry. Now that the hype has died down, what impact has AlphaFold really had? How are scientists using it? And what’s next? I talked to Jumper (as well as a few other scientists) to find out. Read the full story.
—Will Douglas Heaven
The State of AI: Chatbot companions and the future of our privacy
—Eileen Guo & Melissa Heikkilä
Even if you don’t have an AI friend yourself, you probably know someone who does. A recent study found that one of the top uses of generative AI is companionship: On platforms like Character.AI, Replika, or Meta AI, people can create personalized chatbots to pose as the ideal friend, romantic partner, parent, therapist, or any other persona they can dream up.
Some state governments are taking notice and starting to regulate companion AI. But tellingly, one area the laws fail to address is user privacy. Read the full story.
This is the fourth edition of The State of AI, our subscriber-only collaboration between the Financial Times and MIT Technology Review. Sign up here to receive future editions every Monday.
While subscribers to The Algorithm, our weekly AI newsletter, get access to an extended excerpt, subscribers to the MIT Technology Review are able to read the whole thing on our site.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Donald Trump has signed an executive order to boost AI innovation
The “Genesis Mission” will try to speed up the rate of scientific breakthroughs. (Politico)
+ The order directs government science agencies to aggressively embrace AI. (Axios)
+ It’s also being touted as a way to lower energy prices. (CNN)
2 Anthropic’s new AI model is designed to be better at coding
We’ll discover just how much better once Claude Opus 4.5 has been properly put through its paces. (Bloomberg $)
+ It reportedly outscored human candidates in an internal engineering test. (VentureBeat)
+ What is vibe coding, exactly? (MIT Technology Review)
3 The AI boom is keeping India hooked on coal
Leaving little chance of cleaning up Mumbai’s famously deadly pollution. (The Guardian)
+ It’s lethal smog season in New Delhi right now. (CNN)
+ The data center boom in the desert. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Teenagers are losing access to their AI companions
Character.AI is limiting the amount of time underage users can spend interacting with its chatbots. (WSJ $)
+ The majority of the company’s users are young and female. (CNBC)
+ One of OpenAI’s key safety leaders is leaving the company. (Wired $)
+ The looming crackdown on AI companionship. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Weight-loss drugs may be riskier during pregnancy
Recipients are more likely to deliver babies prematurely. (WP $)
+ The pill version of Ozempic failed to halt Alzheimer’s progression in a trial. (The Guardian)
+ We’re learning more about what weight-loss drugs do to the body. (MIT Technology Review)
6 OpenAI is launching a new “shopping research” tool
All the better to track your consumer spending with. (CNBC)
+ It’s designed for price comparisons and compiling buyer’s guides. (The Information $)
+ The company is clearly aiming for a share of Amazon’s e-commerce pie. (Semafor)
7 LA residents displaced by wildfires are moving into prefab housing 
Their new homes are cheap to build and simple to install. (Fast Company $)
+ How AI can help spot wildfires. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Why former Uber drivers are undertaking the world’s toughest driving test
They’re taking the Knowledge—London’s gruelling street test that bypasses GPS. (NYT $)
9 How to spot a fake battery
Great, one more thing to worry about. (IEEE Spectrum)
10 Where is the Trump Mobile?
Almost six months after it was announced, there’s no sign of it. (CNBC)
Quote of the day
“AI is a tsunami that is gonna wipe out everyone. So I’m handing out surfboards.”
—Filmmaker PJ Accetturo, tells Ars Technica why he’s writing a newsletter advising fellow creatives how to pivot to AI tools.
One more thing
The second wave of AI coding is here
Ask people building generative AI what generative AI is good for right now—what they’re really fired up about—and many will tell you: coding.
Everyone from established AI giants to buzzy startups is promising to take coding assistants to the next level. This next generation can prototype, test, and debug code for you. The upshot is that developers could essentially turn into managers, who may spend more time reviewing and correcting code written by a model than writing it.
But there’s more. Many of the people building generative coding assistants think that they could be a fast track to artificial general intelligence, the hypothetical superhuman technology that a number of top firms claim to have in their sights. Read the full story.
—Will Douglas Heaven
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.)
+ If you’re planning a visit to Istanbul here’s hoping you like cats—the city can’t get enough of them.
+ Rest in power reggae icon Jimmy Cliff.
+ Did you know the ancient Egyptians had a pretty accurate way of testing for pregnancy?
+ As our readers in the US start prepping for Thanksgiving, spare a thought for Astoria the lovelorn turkey 
For decades, business continuity planning meant preparing for anomalous events like hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, or regional power outages. In anticipation of these rare disasters, IT teams built playbooks, ran annual tests, crossed their fingers, and hoped they’d never have to use them.
In recent years, an even more persistent threat has emerged. Cyber incidents, particularly ransomware, are now more common—and often, more damaging—than physical disasters. In a recent survey of more than 500 CISOs, almost three-quarters (72%) said their organization had dealt with ransomware in the previous year. Earlier in 2025, ransomware attack rates on enterprises reached record highs.
Mark Vaughn, senior director of the virtualization practice at Presidio, has witnessed the trend firsthand. “When I speak at conferences, I’ll ask the room, ‘How many people have been impacted?’ For disaster recovery, you usually get a few hands,” he says. “But a little over a year ago, I asked how many people in the room had been hit by ransomware, and easily two-thirds of the hands went up.”
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.
This content was researched, designed, and written 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.