The Download: Big Tech’s carbon removals plans, and the next wave of nuclear reactors
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.
Big Tech’s big bet on a controversial carbon removal tactic
Microsoft, JP MorganChase, and a tech company consortium that includes Alphabet, Meta, Shopify, and Stripe have all recently struck multimillion-dollar deals to pay paper mill owners to capture at least hundreds of thousands of tons of this greenhouse gas by installing carbon scrubbing equipment in their facilities.
The captured carbon dioxide will then be piped down into saline aquifers more than a mile underground, where it should be sequestered permanently.
Big Tech is suddenly betting big on this form of carbon removal, known as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, or BECCS. But experts have raised a number of concerns. Read the full story.
—James Temple
2025 climate tech companies to watch: Kairos Power and its next-generation nuclear reactors
Like many new nuclear startups, Kairos promises a path to reliable, 24/7 decarbonized power. Unlike most, it already has prototypes under construction and permits for several reactors.
The company uses molten salt to cool its reactions and transfer heat, rather than the high-pressure water that’s used in existing fission reactors. It hopes its technology will enable commercial reactors that are cost-competitive with natural gas plants and boast safer operation than conventional reactors, even in the event of complete power loss. Read the full story.
—Mark Harris
Kairos Power is one of our 10 climate tech companies to watch—our annual list of some of the most promising climate tech firms on the planet. Check out the rest of the list here.
MIT Technology Review Narrated: Inside the strange limbo facing millions of IVF embryos
Millions of embryos created through IVF sit frozen in time, stored in tanks around the world. The number is only growing thanks to advances in technology, the rising popularity of IVF, and improvements in its success rates.
At a basic level, an embryo is simply a tiny ball of a hundred or so cells. But unlike other types of body tissue, it holds the potential for life. Many argue that this endows embryos with a special moral status, one that requires special protections.
The problem is that no one can really agree on what that status is. While these embryos persist in suspended animation, patients, clinicians, embryologists, and legislators must grapple with the essential question of what we should do with them. What do these embryos mean to us? Who should be responsible for them?
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 ChatGPT will start talking dirty to verified adults
The chatbot is getting a new erotica function as part of OpenAI’s bid to “safely relax” its restrictions. (The Verge)
+ The company has created its own wellness council to inform its decisions. (Ars Technica)
+ It’s surprisingly easy to stumble into a relationship with an AI chatbot. (MIT Technology Review)
2 A secret surveillance empire tracked thousands of people across the world
The European-led First Wap has operated covertly for more than two decades. (Mother Jones)
+ The group ran at least 10 scam compounds across the country. (Wired $)
+ Inside a romance scam compound—and how people get tricked into being there. (MIT Technology Review)
3 YouTube ran Israel-funded ads claiming there was food in famine-struck Gaza
And allowed them to remain online even after complaints from multiple government authorities. (WP $)
+ Companies have denied they’re involved in rebuilding Gaza. (Wired $)
4 Instagram wants to become a more teen-friendly space
It’s bringing in new age-gating measures inspired by the PG-13 movie rating. (NBC News)
+ The policy will also extend to its chatbots. (NYT $)
5 A massive Cambodia-based pig butchering scheme has been foiled
It’s the biggest forfeiture action the US Department of Justice has ever pursued. (CNBC)
6 Waymo’s driverless taxis are coming to London
From next year, it says pedestrians will be able to hail its robotaxis. (WSJ $)
7 Black patients were failed by a race-based medical calculation
It delayed their access to life-saving kidney transplants. (The Markup)
+ A woman in the US is the third person to receive a gene-edited pig kidney. (MIT Technology Review)
8 AI flood forecasting is helping farmers across the world
Nonprofits are using it to deliver early aid. (Rest of World)
9 A man with paralysis can feel objects through another person’s hand
Thanks to a new brain implant. (New Scientist $)
+ Meet the other companies developing brain-computer interfaces. (MIT Technology Review)
10 Tech internships are alive and well
Despite all the AI angst. (Insider $)
Quote of the day
“You made ChatGPT “pretty restrictive”? Really. Is that why it has been recommending kids harm and kill themselves?”
—Josh Hawley, US Senator for Missouri, reacts to the news OpenAI is planning to loosen its restrictions in a post on X.
One more thing
Why we should thank pigeons for our AI breakthroughsPeople looking for precursors to artificial intelligence often point to science fiction by authors like Isaac Asimov or thought experiments like the Turing test. But an equally important, if surprising and less appreciated, forerunner is American psychologist B.F. Skinner’s research with pigeons in the middle of the 20th century.
Skinner believed that association—learning, through trial and error, to link an action with a punishment or reward—was the building block of every behavior, not just in pigeons but in all living organisms, including human beings.
His “behaviorist” theories fell out of favor with psychologists and animal researchers in the 1960s but were taken up by computer scientists who eventually provided the foundation for many of the artificial-intelligence tools from leading firms like Google and OpenAI. Read the full story.
—Ben Crair
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.)
+ I love the sound of Grateful Fishing TV—starring two fishermen who just love hanging out and frying some fish. Truly wholesome stuff (thanks to Chino Moreno via Perfectly Imperfect for the recommendation!)
+ Rest in power D’Angelo, your timeless tunes will live on.
+ If you’re into stress-watches, this list is full of anxiety-inducing classics.
+ One of the world’s longest dinosaur superhighways has been uncovered in a sleepy part of England.
