Plus: SpaceX is now valued higher than Amazon.
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.
Hacking the atmosphere: geoengineering gets a reality check
Solar geoengineering, the controversial idea that we could deliberately intervene in the climate system to counteract global warming, is moving beyond computer simulations and into the practical engineering challenges required to make it real.
Researchers are now working on aircraft, materials, and other systems for solar geoengineering. But as they delve into these details, they’re finding that even early deployment would require significant new infrastructure, time, and investment.
—James Temple
MIT Technology Review Narrated: inside interoception, the hidden sense of how you feel inside
Scientists have a word for how we sense ourselves from the inside: interoception. Today, thanks to a 2021 Nobel Prize and new tools that can map internal signaling across the body, research into interoception is taking off.
As researchers decode how signals move between body and brain, a clearer picture is starting to take shape—with implications for how we treat conditions from obesity to anxiety.
—Katherine W. Isaacs
This is our latest story to be turned into 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 SpaceX is now valued higher than Amazon
Its market value hit $2.659 trillion yesterday. (Axios)
+ A post-IPO stock surge also briefly pushed it above Microsoft’s. (Quartz)
+ It's now the world’s fifth most valuable company. (Guardian)
+ SpaceX is acquiring AI coding startup Cursor for $60 billion. (CNBC)
2 G7 leaders want access to top US AI models
They're pushing to escape restrictions on the likes of Fable 5. (Reuters $)
+ The Mythos shutdown has sparked a global scramble for sovereign AI. (Fortune)
+ The world is looking to ditch US AI models. (MIT Technology Review)
3 Trump's AI export strategy has run into Trump's export controls
His administration risks undermining its own AI plans. (Axios)
+ It now effectively has a licensing regime for frontier AI. (Fortune)
+ Here’s how a top Chinese AI model overcame US sanctions. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Huawei’s big comeback has exposed the limits of US chip controls
It’s overcome restrictions on advanced chipmaking gear. (Financial Times $)
+ The AI boom has ignited Asia’s chip companies. (NYT $)
5 AI fears are pushing Silicon Valley toward gene-editing startups
They want smarter babies to counter superintelligent AI. (Mother Jones)
+ The pursuit of perfect babies is an ethical mess. (MIT Technology Review)
6 A brain implant has enabled a speechless ALS patient to work full-time
The system translates his brain activity into speech. (The Register)
+ He’s become the first “power user” of a BCI. (MIT Technology Review)
7 A leak has revealed details of Peter Thiel’s secret society
Its program ranges from cult-building to prepping for World War III. (Wired $)
8 ChatGPT’s market share has slipped below 50% for the first time
Thanks to the rise of Gemini and Claude. (TechCrunch)
9 A quantum state that lasts forever may finally be within our grasp
Experiments suggest that quantum “eternity” is possible. (New Scientist $)
10 Commodore has made a digital detox phone that isn’t dumb
The Callback combines gadget nostalgia with modern needs. (The Verge)
Quote of the day
“The Entity List is like whack-a-mole and you've got to keep whacking the moles.”
—Philip Luck, who studies global supply chains at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, tells Reuters that a lack of new blacklistings is likely leading American innovations to adversaries who could use them against the US.
One More Thing
This is the reason Demis Hassabis started DeepMind
Watching DeepMind’s AI master the ancient board game Go, Demis Hassabis realized that his company was ready to take on one of the most important and complicated puzzles in biology: predicting the structure of proteins.
The result was AlphaFold2, an AI that could predict the shape of proteins down to the nearest atom. “It’s the most complex thing we’ve ever done,” Hassabis told MIT Technology Review.
Taking on scientific problems is the culmination of what Hassabis set out to achieve, and it’s what he wants to be known for. “This is the reason I started DeepMind,” he says. “In fact, it’s why I’ve worked my whole career in AI.”
Discover how he plans to transform science with AI.
—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.)
+ This mesmerising footage of wind rolling through grass looks like CGI.
+ The glorious early days of internet discovery have been revived by the return of StumbleUpon.
+ A German subway entrance has been delightfully designed as an old tram car crashing into the pavement.
+ The Last Museum lets you search across 5.8 million museum artworks spanning from 3000 BC to the present day.
Deep Dive
The Download
The Download: DeepSeek’s latest AI breakthrough, and the race to build world models
Plus: China has blocked Meta’s $2 billion acquisition of AI startup Manus.
The Download: introducing the 10 Things That Matter in AI Right Now
Plus: An unauthorized group has reportedly accessed Anthropic’s Mythos.
The Download: AI hacking beyond Mythos, and chatbots’ impact on our brains
Plus: Anthropic has called for a global slowdown in AI development.
The Download: supercharged scams and studying AI healthcare
Plus: DeepSeek has unveiled its long-awaited new AI model.
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Facts Only
Solar geoengineering is moving from simulations to practical engineering challenges.
Researchers are developing aircraft, materials, and systems for solar geoengineering deployment.
Early deployment would require significant new infrastructure, time, and investment.
Interoception, the body's internal sensing system, is a growing field of research.
A 2021 Nobel Prize and new mapping tools have accelerated interoception studies.
Interoception research could impact treatments for obesity and anxiety.
SpaceX's market value reached $2.659 trillion, surpassing Amazon.
SpaceX acquired AI coding startup Cursor for $60 billion.
G7 leaders are seeking access to top U.S. AI models like Fable 5.
Trump's AI export strategy faces conflicts with existing export controls.
Huawei has overcome U.S. chip restrictions, exposing limits of export controls.
AI fears are driving Silicon Valley investment in gene-editing startups.
A brain implant enabled an ALS patient to work full-time by translating brain activity into speech.
A leak revealed details of Peter Thiel’s secret society, including cult-building and war preparations.
ChatGPT's market share has dropped below 50% due to competition from Gemini and Claude.
Experiments suggest a quantum state lasting forever may be achievable.
Commodore released the Callback, a digital detox phone combining nostalgia with modern features.
Executive Summary
The article covers two major technological developments: the practical challenges of solar geoengineering and the growing research into interoception, the body's internal sensing system. Solar geoengineering, once a theoretical concept, is now facing real-world engineering hurdles, including the need for significant infrastructure and investment. Meanwhile, interoception research is advancing rapidly, with new tools mapping internal body signals and potential applications in treating conditions like obesity and anxiety. Additionally, the article highlights SpaceX's surging valuation, now exceeding Amazon's, and its acquisition of AI coding startup Cursor. Other topics include global AI regulation debates, Huawei's resilience against U.S. chip controls, and breakthroughs in brain-computer interfaces for ALS patients.
The piece also touches on broader themes like the ethical implications of gene-editing startups, the rise of alternative AI models challenging ChatGPT's dominance, and the resurgence of digital nostalgia with products like the Commodore Callback phone. Each topic is presented with a mix of technical detail and broader societal context, reflecting the intersection of innovation, regulation, and human impact.
Full Take
The article presents a snapshot of technological advancements and their societal implications, but it also reveals deeper patterns worth scrutinizing. The strongest version of this narrative highlights legitimate progress—solar geoengineering moving toward feasibility, interoception research offering new medical possibilities, and SpaceX's valuation reflecting real innovation. However, the framing of these developments often leans toward uncritical enthusiasm, with little exploration of risks or trade-offs. For example, solar geoengineering's infrastructure demands are noted, but the ethical and ecological consequences of large-scale climate intervention remain underexamined. Similarly, the interoception research is framed as a breakthrough without addressing potential misuse or overmedicalization of internal bodily signals.
The pattern scan reveals subtle elements of **ARC-0024 Ambiguity**—where complex topics like AI regulation and gene-editing are presented with insufficient context about their broader implications. The piece also flirts with **ARC-0043 Motte-and-Bailey**, particularly in the discussion of AI fears driving gene-editing investments. The narrative oscillates between a reasonable concern (AI's societal impact) and an extreme response (designing "smarter babies"), without interrogating whether the latter is a proportional or ethical solution.
Root causes here include an underlying assumption that technological progress is inherently positive, with little room for skepticism about unintended consequences. The article echoes historical patterns of techno-optimism, where innovation is celebrated without sufficient scrutiny of its long-term effects on human agency and dignity. For instance, the brain implant for ALS patients is a genuine breakthrough, but the broader implications of brain-computer interfaces—such as privacy, autonomy, or inequality in access—are left unexplored.
Implications abound: Who benefits from these advancements? Silicon Valley investors and tech giants clearly stand to gain, while the costs—environmental, ethical, or societal—are often externalized. Second-order consequences, like the potential for AI-driven gene editing to exacerbate social inequalities or the geopolitical risks of solar geoengineering, are barely mentioned.
Bridge questions to consider: What safeguards are needed to ensure solar geoengineering doesn’t become a tool for unilateral climate control? How might interoception research be weaponized for surveillance or behavioral manipulation? And why is the narrative around AI so often framed as a zero-sum competition between nations, rather than a collective challenge requiring global cooperation?
Counterstrike scan: If this were part of a coordinated influence campaign, the playbook would emphasize uncritical techno-optimism, downplay risks, and frame progress as inevitable. The actual content aligns partially with this pattern—celebrating innovation while glossing over ethical dilemmas—but stops short of outright manipulation. It’s more a reflection of media’s tendency to prioritize novelty over nuance than a deliberate disinformation effort.
Sentinel — Human
This content exhibits the structure and thematic blending typical of high-quality human-curated technology journalism, effectively linking complex scientific research with current market and geopolitical events.