The Download: the solar geoengineering race, and future gazing with the The Simpsons
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.
Why the for-profit race into solar geoengineering is bad for science and public trust
—David Keith is the professor of geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago and Daniele Visioni is an assistant professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Cornell University
Last week, an American-Israeli company that claims it’s developed proprietary technology to cool the planet announced it had raised $60 million, by far the largest known venture capital round to date for a solar geoengineering startup.
The company, Stardust, says the funding will enable it to develop a system that could be deployed by the start of the next decade, according to Heatmap, which broke the story.
As scientists who have worked on the science of solar geoengineering for decades, we have grown increasingly concerned about emerging efforts to start and fund private companies to deploy technologies that could alter the climate of the planet. We also strongly dispute some of the technical claims that certain companies have made about their offerings. Read the full story.
This story is part of Heat Exchange, MIT Technology Review’s guest opinion series offering expert commentary on legal, political and regulatory issues related to climate change and clean energy. You can read the rest of the series here.
Can “The Simpsons” really predict the future?
According to internet listicles, the animated sitcom The Simpsons has predicted the future anywhere from 17 to 55 times.
The show foresaw Donald Trump becoming US President a full 17 years before the real estate mogul was inaugurated as the 45th leader of the United States. Earlier, in 1993, an episode of the show featured the “Osaka flu,” which some felt was eerily prescient of the coronavirus pandemic. And—somehow!—Simpsons writers just knew that the US Olympic curling team would beat Sweden eight whole years before they did it.
Al Jean has worked on The Simpsons on and off since 1989; he is the cartoon’s longest-serving showrunner. Here, he reflects on the conspiracy theories that have sprung from these apparent prophecies. Read the full story.
—Amelia Tait
This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s series “The New Conspiracy Age,” about how the present boom in conspiracy theories is reshaping science and technology.
MIT Technology Review Narrated: Therapists are secretly using ChatGPT. Clients are triggered.
Declan would never have found out his therapist was using ChatGPT had it not been for a technical mishap where his therapist began inadvertently sharing his screen.
For the rest of the session, Declan was privy to a real-time stream of ChatGPT analysis rippling across his therapist’s screen, who was taking what Declan was saying, putting it into ChatGPT, and then parroting its answers.
But Declan is not alone. In fact, a growing number of people are reporting receiving AI-generated communiqués from their therapists. Clients’ trust and privacy are being abandoned in the process.
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 Amazon is suing Perplexity over its Comet AI agent
It alleges Perplexity is committing computer fraud by not disclosing when Comet is shopping on a human’s behalf. (Bloomberg $)
+ In turn, Perplexity has accused Amazon of bullying. (CNBC)
2 Trump has nominated the billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman to lead NASA
Five months after he withdrew Isaacman’s nomination for the same job. (WP $)
+ It was around the same time Elon Musk left the US government. (WSJ $)
3 Homeland Security has released an app for police forces to scan people’s faces
Mobile Fortify uses facial recognition to identify whether someone’s been given a deportation order. (404 Media)
+ Another effort to track ICE raids was just taken offline. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Scientific journals are being swamped with AI-written letters
Researchers are sifting through their inbox trying to work out what to believe. (NYT $)
+ ArXiv is no longer accepting certain papers for fear they’ve been written by AI. (404 Media)
5 The AI boom has proved a major windfall for equipment makers
Makers of small turbines and fuel cells, rejoice. (WSJ $)
6 Chronic kidney disease may be the first chronic illness linked to climate change
Experts have linked a surge in the disease to hotter temperatures. (Undark)
+ The quest to find out how our bodies react to extreme temperatures. (MIT Technology Review)
7 Brazil is proposing a fund to protect tropical forests
It would pay countries not to fell their trees. (NYT $)
8 New York has voted for a citywide digital map
It’ll officially represent the five boroughs for the first time. (Fast Company $)
9 The internet could be at risk of catastrophic collapse
Meet the people preparing for that exact eventuality. (New Scientist $)
10 A Chinese space craft may have been hit by space junk
Three astronauts have been forced to remain on the Tiangong space station while the damage is investigated. (Ars Technica)
Quote of the day
“I am not sure how I earned the trust of so many, but I will do everything I can to live up to those expectations.”
—Jared Isaacman, Donald Trump’s renomination to lead NASA, doesn’t appear entirely sure in his own abilities to lead the agency, Ars Technica reports.
One more thing
Is the digital dollar dead?In 2020, digital currencies were one of the hottest topics in town. China was well on its way to launching its own central bank digital currency, or CBDC, and many other countries launched CBDC research projects, including the US.
How things change. Years later, the digital dollar—even though it doesn’t exist—has become political red meat, as some politicians label it a dystopian tool for surveillance. And late last year, the Boston Fed quietly stopped working on its CBDC project. So is the dream of the digital dollar dead? Read the full story.
—Mike Orcutt
