The Download: chaos at OpenAI, and the spa heated by bitcoin mining
Plus: Nvidia has set its sights on building a new supercomputer
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.
Inside the story that enraged OpenAI
—Niall Firth, executive editor, MIT Technology Review
In 2019, Karen Hao, a senior reporter with MIT Technology Review, pitched me a story about a then little-known company, OpenAI. It was her biggest assignment to date. Hao’s feat of reporting took a series of twists and turns over the coming months, eventually revealing how OpenAI’s ambition had taken it far afield from its original mission.
The finished story was a prescient look at a company at a tipping point—or already past it. And OpenAI was not happy with the result. Hao’s new book, Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI, is an in-depth exploration of the company that kick-started the AI arms race, and what that race means for all of us. This excerpt is the origin story of that reporting.
This spa’s water is heated by bitcoin mining
At first glance, the Bathhouse spa in Brooklyn looks not so different from other high-end spas. What sets it apart is out of sight: a closet full of cryptocurrency-mining computers that not only generate bitcoins but also heat the spa’s pools, marble hammams, and showers.
When cofounder Jason Goodman opened Bathhouse’s first location in Williamsburg in 2019, he used conventional pool heaters. But after diving deep into the world of bitcoin, he realized he could fit cryptocurrency mining seamlessly into his business. Read the full story.
—Carrie Klein
This story is from the most recent edition of our print magazine, which is all about how technology is changing creativity. Subscribe now to read it and to receive future print copies once they land.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Nvidia wants to build an AI supercomputer in Taiwan
As Trump’s tariffs upend existing supply chains. (WSJ $)
+ Jensen Huang has denied that Nvidia’s chips are being diverted into China. (Bloomberg $)
2 xAI’s Grok dabbled in Holocaust denial
The chatbot said it was “skeptical” about points that historians agree are facts. (Rolling Stone $)
+ It blamed the comments on a programming error. (The Guardian)
3 Apple is planning to overhaul Siri entirely
To make it an assistant fit for the AI age. (Bloomberg $)
4 Dentists are worried by RFK Jr’s fluoride ban
Particularly in rural America. (Ars Technica)
+ Florida has become the second state to ban fluoride in public water. (NBC News)
5 Fewer people want to work in America’s factories
That’s a problem when Trump is so hell-bent on kickstarting the manufacturing industry. (WSJ $)
+ Sweeping tariffs could threaten the US manufacturing rebound. (MIT Technology Review)
6 Meet the crypto investors hoping to bend the President’s ear
They’re treating Trump’s meme coin dinner as an opportunity to push their agendas. (WP $)
+ Many of them are offloading their coins, too. (Wired $)
+ Crypto bigwigs are targets for criminals. (WSJ $)
+ Bodyguards and other forms of security are becoming de rigueur. (Bloomberg $)
7 How the US reversed the overdose epidemic
Naloxone is a major factor. (Vox)
+ How the federal government is tracking changes in the supply of street drugs. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Chatbots really love the heads of the companies that made them
And are not so fond of the leaders of its rivals. (FT $)
+ What if we could just ask AI to be less biased? (MIT Technology Review)
9 Technology is a double-edged sword 📱
What connects us can simultaneously outrage us. (The Atlantic $)
10 Meet the people hooked on watching nature live streams
They find checking in with animals puts their own troubles in perspective. (The Guardian)
Quote of the day
“People are just scared. They don’t know where they fit in this new world.”
—Angela Jiang, who is working on a startup exploring the impact of AI on the labor market, tells the Wall Street Journal about the woes of tech job seekers trying to land new jobs in the current economy.
One more thing
How the Rubin Observatory will help us understand dark matter and dark energyWe can put a good figure on how much we know about the universe: 5%. That’s how much of what’s floating about in the cosmos is ordinary matter—planets and stars and galaxies and the dust and gas between them. The other 95% is dark matter and dark energy, two mysterious entities aptly named for our inability to shed light on their true nature.
Previous work has begun pulling apart these dueling forces, but dark matter and dark energy remain shrouded in a blanket of questions—critically, what exactly are they?
Enter the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, one of our 10 breakthrough technologies for 2025. Boasting the largest digital camera ever created, Rubin is expected to study the cosmos in the highest resolution yet once it begins observations later this year. And with a better window on the cosmic battle between dark matter and dark energy, Rubin might narrow down existing theories on what they are made of. Here’s a look at how.
—Jenna Ahart
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.)
+ Archaeologists in Canada are facing a mighty challenge—to solve how thousands of dinosaurs died in what’s now a forest in Alberta.
+ Before Brian Johnson joined AC/DC, he sang on this very distinctive hoover (vacuum cleaner) ad.
+ Wealthy Londoners are adding spas to their gardens, because why not.
+ I must eat the crystal breakfast! 🥓 🍳 🫘
