The Download: surviving extreme temperatures, and the big whale-wind turbine conspiracy
Plus: China is catching up with America’s AI lead
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.
The quest to find out how our bodies react to extreme temperatures
Climate change is subjecting vulnerable people to temperatures that push their limits. In 2023, about 47,000 heat-related deaths are believed to have occurred in Europe. Researchers estimate that climate change could add an extra 2.3 million European heat deaths this century. That’s heightened the stakes for solving the mystery of just what happens to bodies in extreme conditions.
While we broadly know how people thermoregulate, the science of keeping warm or cool is mottled with blind spots. Researchers around the world are revising rules about when extremes veer from uncomfortable to deadly. Their findings change how we should think about the limits of hot and cold—and how to survive in a new world. Read the full story.
—Max G.Levy
This story is from the latest print issue of MIT Technology Review magazine, which is full of fascinating stories about the body. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land.
Whales are dying. Don’t blame wind turbines.
Whale deaths have become a political flashpoint. There are currently three active mortality events for whales in the Atlantic, meaning clusters of deaths that experts consider unusual. And Republican lawmakers, conservative think tanks, and—most notably—President Donald Trump (a longtime enemy of wind power) are making dubious claims that offshore wind farms are responsible.
But any finger-pointing at wind turbines for whale deaths ignores the fact that whales have been washing up on beaches since long before the giant machines were rooted in the ocean floor. This is something that has always happened. And the scientific consensus is clear: There’s no evidence that wind farms are the cause of recent increases in whale deaths. Read the full story.
—Casey Crownhart
This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s series “The New Conspiracy Age,” on how the present boom in conspiracy theories is reshaping science and technology. Check out the rest of the series here.
The State of AI: Energy is king, and the US is falling behind
In the age of AI, the biggest barrier to progress isn’t money but energy. That should be particularly worrying in the US, where massive data centers are waiting to come online. It doesn’t look as if the country will build the steady power supply or infrastructure needed to serve them all.
It wasn’t always like this. For about a decade before 2020, data centers were able to offset increased demand with efficiency improvements. Now, though, electricity demand is ticking up in the US, with billions of queries to popular AI models each day—and efficiency gains aren’t keeping pace.
If we want AI to have the chance to deliver on big promises without driving electricity prices sky-high for the rest of us, the US needs to learn some lessons from the rest of the world on energy abundance. Just look at China. Read the full story.
—Casey Crownhart & Pilita Clark
This is from The State of AI, our subscriber-only collaboration between the Financial Times & MIT Technology Review examining the ways in which AI is reshaping global power.
Every Monday for the next four weeks, writers from both publications will debate one aspect of the generative AI revolution reshaping global power. While subscribers to The Algorithm, our weekly AI newsletter, get access to an extended excerpt, subscribers to the magazine are able to read the whole thing.
Sign up here to receive future editions every Monday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 How China narrowed its AI divide with the US
America still has a clear lead—but for how long? (WSJ $)
+ The AI boom won’t offset tariffs and America’s immigration crackdown forever. (FT $)
+ How quickly is AI likely to progress really? (Economist $)
+ Is China about to win the AI race? (MIT Technology Review)
2 Anthropic is due to turn a profit much faster than OpenAI
The two companies are taking very different approaches to making money. (WSJ $)
+ OpenAI has lured Intel’s AI chief away. (Bloomberg $)
3 The EU is setting up a new intelligence sharing unit
It’s a bid to shore up intel in the wake of Donald Trump’s plans to reduce security support for Europe. (FT $)
4 Trump officials are poised to suggest oil drilling off the coast of California
That’s likely to rile the state’s politicians and leaders. (WP $)
+ What role should oil and gas companies play in climate tech? (MIT Technology Review)
5 America’s cyber defenses are poor
Repeated cuts and mass layoffs are making it harder to protect the nation. (The Verge)
6 China is on track to hit its peak CO2 emissions target early
Although it’s likely to miss its goal for cutting carbon intensity. (The Guardian)
+ World leaders are heading to COP30 in Brazil this week. (New Yorker $)
7 OpenAI cannot use song lyrics without a license
That’s what a German court has decided, after siding with a music rights society. (Reuters)
+ OpenAI is no stranger to legal proceedings. (The Atlantic $)
+ AI is coming for music. (MIT Technology Review)
8 A small Michigan town is fighting a proposed AI data center
The planned center is part of a collaboration between the University of Michigan and nuclear weapons scientists. (404 Media)
+ Here’s where America’s data centers should be built instead. (Wired $)
+ Communities in Latin America are pushing back, too. (The Guardian)
+ Should we be moving data centers to space? (MIT Technology Review)
9 AI models can’t tell the time ⏰
Analog clocks leave them completely stumped. (IEEE Spectrum)
10 ChatGPT is giving daters the ick
These refuseniks don’t want anything to do with AI, or love interests who use it. (The Guardian)
Quote of the day
“I never imagined that making a cup of tea or obtaining water, antibiotics, or painkillers would require such tremendous effort.”
—An anonymous member of startup accelerator Gaza Sky Geeks tells Rest of World about the impact the war has had on them.
One more thing
How Rust went from a side project to the world’s most-loved programming languageMany software projects emerge because—somewhere out there—a programmer had a personal problem to solve.
That’s more or less what happened to Graydon Hoare. In 2006, Hoare was a 29-year-old computer programmer working for Mozilla. After a software crash broke the elevator in his building, he set about designing a new computer language; one that he hoped would make it possible to write small, fast code without memory bugs.
That language developed into Rust, one of the hottest new languages on the planet. But while it isn’t unusual for someone to make a new computer language, it’s incredibly rare for one to take hold and become part of the programming pantheon. How did Rust do it? Read the full story.
