The Download: the future of energy, and chatting about chatbots
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.
4 technologies that could power the future of energy
Where can you find lasers, electric guitars, and racks full of novel batteries, all in the same giant room? This week, the answer was the 2025 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit just outside Washington, DC.
Energy innovation can take many forms, and the variety in energy research was on display at the summit. ARPA-E, part of the US Department of Energy, provides funding for high-risk, high-reward research projects. The summit gathers projects the agency has funded, along with investors, policymakers, and journalists.
Hundreds of projects were exhibited in a massive hall during the conference, featuring demonstrations and research results. Here are four of the most interesting innovations MIT Technology Review spotted on site. Read the full story.
—Casey Crownhart
If you’re interested in hearing more about what Casey learnt from the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit, check out the latest edition of The Spark, our weekly climate and energy newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.
Join us today to chat about chatbots
Chatbots are changing how we connect to each other and ourselves. But are these changes for the better, and how should they be monitored and regulated?
To learn more, join me for a live Roundtable session today at 12pm ET. I’ll be chatting with MIT Technology Review editor Rachel Courtland and senior reporter Eileen Guo, and we’ll be unpacking the landscape around chatbots. Register to ensure you don’t miss out!
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 A French scientist was denied US entry over anti-Donald Trump messages
US authorities claimed the exchanges criticising the Trump administration’s research policy qualified as terrorism. (Le Monde)
+ France’s research minister is a high-profile critic of Trump policy. (The Guardian)
+ Customs and Border Protection is cracking down at airports across the US. (The Verge)
2 RFK Jr wants to let bird flu spread through poultry farms
Experts warn that this approach isn’t just dangerous—it won’t work. (Scientific American $)
+ A bird flu outbreak has been confirmed in Scotland. (BBC)
+ How the US is preparing for a potential bird flu pandemic. (MIT Technology Review)
3 Clearview AI tried to buy millions of mugshots for its databases
But negotiations between the facial recognition company and an intelligence firm broke down. (404 Media)
4 Top US graduates are desperate to work for Chinese AI startups
DeepSeek’s success has sparked major interest in firms outside America. (Bloomberg $)
+ Four Chinese AI startups to watch beyond DeepSeek. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Reddit has become a lifeline for US federal workers
Unpaid moderators are working around the clock to help answer urgent questions. (NYT $)
+ The only two democrats on the board of the FTC have been fired. (Vox)
+ Elon Musk, DOGE, and the Evil Housekeeper Problem. (MIT Technology Review)
6 The European Commission is targeting Apple and Google
It’s proceeding with regulatory action, despite the risk of retaliation from Trump. (FT $)
+ It has accused Alphabet of favoring its own services in search results. (The Information $)
+ Meta’s AI chatbot is finally launching in Europe after all. (The Verge)
7 AI agents could spell bad news for shopping apps
DoorDash and Uber could suffer if humans outsource their ordering to bots. (The Information $)
+ Dunzo was a major delivery success story in India. So what happened? (Rest of World)
+ Your most important customer may be AI. (MIT Technology Review)
8 This startup is making concrete using CO2
It combines the gas with a byproduct from coal power plants to make lower carbon concrete. (Fast Company $)
+ How electricity could help tackle a surprising climate villain. (MIT Technology Review)
9 This robot dog has a functional digital nervous system
And will be taught to walk by a real human dog trainer, not an algorithm. (Reuters)
10 Dark matter could be getting weaker
If it’s true, it holds major implications for our understanding of the universe. (Quanta Magazine)
+ Are we alone in the universe? (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“The corrupting influence of billionaires in law enforcement is an issue that affects all of us.”
—Alvaro Bedoya, a former commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission, speaks out after being fired by Donald Trump, the Verge reports.
The big story
The arrhythmia of our current age
October 2025
Arrhythmia means the heart beats, but not in proper time—a critical rhythm of life suddenly going rogue and unpredictable. It’s frightening to experience, but what if it’s also a good metaphor for our current times? That a pulse once seemingly so steady is now less sure.
Perhaps this wobbliness might be extrapolated into a broader sense of life in the 2020s.
Maybe you feel it, too—that the world seems to have skipped more than a beat or two as demagogues rant and democracy shudders, hurricanes rage, and glaciers dissolve. We can’t stop watching tiny screens where influencers pitch products we don’t need alongside news about senseless wars that destroy, murder, and maim tens-of-thousands.
All the resulting anxiety has been hard on our hearts—literally and metaphorically. Read the full story.
—David Ewing Duncan
