Dozens of US states are considering legislation to allow people to install plug-in solar systems, often called balcony solar. These small arrays require little to no setup and could help cut emissions and power bills. Balcony solar is already popular in Europe, and proponents say that the systems could make solar power more accessible for more people in the US, including renters. As popularity rises, though, some experts caution that there are safety concerns with how balcony solar would work with existing electrical equipment in homes. Let’s talk about what balcony solar is, why it’s unique, and how new testing requirements could affect our progress toward deploying the technology in the US. Plug-in solar systems are designed to be simple to install, often requiring no electrician or specialized worker at all. They’re small, and many can be plugged into existing outlets.
People across Germany have installed over a million balcony solar systems. They generally measure up to roughly two square meters or about 20 square feet, and can generate up to 800 watts—enough to power a standard microwave. Now the plug-in solar wave is coming to the US. Many Americans have already installed DIY balcony solar without the permission of their utilities—it’s something of a regulatory gray area. In late 2025, Utah became the first state to explicitly allow people to install and use balcony solar systems. Over two dozen other states are now considering similar legislation.
Generally, utilities require users to sign an interconnection agreement before they can plug in large arrays of solar panels that generate power for the grid. There can be fees and permits, and it all amounts to an expensive and lengthy process. Utah’s law ditched the interconnection requirement for panels that have a low power cap and that are certified by a national testing facility. (Legislation under consideration in other states, including New York, includes the same requirements.) The thinking is that since the panels produce very little power, which would be used to meet a home’s own energy demand and probably not get sent back to the grid, the same requirements shouldn’t apply.  As for that certification piece, in January the national testing and certification lab UL Solutions released UL 3700, a testing protocol to certify balcony solar systems and ensure that they’re safe.  There are three main safety considerations to address for these plug-in solar systems, says Joseph Bablo, manager of principal engineering, energy, and industrial automation at UL Solutions. First, there’s the possibility of overloading a circuit. Generally, electrical circuits have circuit breakers, which can trip and interrupt current if necessary. But if there’s a solar panel adding extra power to a circuit, a traditional breaker might not be able to respond to overload. Over time, overloaded circuits can damage equipment or even start a fire.  Second, these small systems are typically installed on the outside of homes, and outdoor power outlets generally have ground fault circuit interruption (GFCI). Basically, if an outlet or its surroundings are wet, it can shut down to prevent electric shock. Many GFCI systems may not work if there’s power going back into an outlet from a solar panel. Finally, there’s touch safety: If a plug gets disconnected from the wall, the blades of the plug may still have power running through them for a short time. If a panel is getting sunlight, those blades could be energized for longer than is typical. The new UL Solutions testing framework aims to address these concerns. One of the key recommendations is that plug-in solar panels should use a special outlet that’s designed specifically for them. The safety measures included in that connection, and within a panel, would ensure that the panels are safe. The need for a special outlet means that currently, people who want to plug in a solar panel array would probably need to have an electrician come and update their wiring in order to comply with the protocol, Bablo says. “I know they want to say ‘No electrician, no permits’—we’re not there.”

Today, anyone can buy products like solar panels and inverters, some of which carry their own component UL certifications, and string them together. (Inverters are covered under UL 1741, for example.) But the gold standard is to have an entire system that meets the safety requirements, and that means adhering to the new standard, Bablo says. As of early May, there aren’t any plug-in solar systems that have been fully certified by UL Solutions. And Bablo said he couldn’t share information about what, if any, are in the pipeline.   Even with the new certification requirements, Bablo still thinks plug-in solar still has the potential to help more people access the technology. “There’s a way for it to work, but we want it to work safely,” he says. This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Forty-eight years ago this July, Louise Joy Brown became the world’s first person born with the help of in vitro fertilization. Millions more IVF babies have entered the world since then. And that’s partly thanks to advances in technology that have made IVF safer and more effective. But it’s still not perfect. The process can be slow, painful, and expensive—and that’s for the lucky people who are able to access it in the first place. And by at least one measure, IVF success rates have been declining in recent years. Reproduction is complex, and there’s a lot that embryologists and gynecologists still don’t know and can’t control. They don’t know why many healthy-looking embryos don’t “stick” in the uterus, for example. They don’t always have an explanation for why their patients can’t get pregnant. And they can’t always account for vast differences in IVF success rates between individuals and between fertility clinics. Scientists are working on all those questions and more. They’re wrestling with complex ethical questions about how new genetic tools will be used to analyze or even alter embryos. Meanwhile, technologies designed to standardize treatment, eliminate human error, boost success rates, and make IVF more accessible are already beginning to usher in a new era for assisted reproduction—one aided by AI and robots.
1. Helping embryos stick Some of those technologies are being developed at the Carlos Simon Foundation in Valencia, Spain. When I visited in March, researchers gave me a tour of the labs and showed me a device that had been used to keep a human uterus alive outside the body for the first time. While some members of the team dream of building artificial uteruses that might one day be able to carry a fetus to term, they first want to use such devices to learn more about implantation—the moment at which a fertilized egg makes contact with the lining of the uterus, burrows inside, and essentially “hatches,” triggering the start of a pregnancy.
Despite decades of advances in IVF, that process is still poorly understood. Even healthy-looking embryos stick no more than 40% to 60% of the time. In IVF techniques used today, clinics can create early-stage embryos and wait until the uterus is deemed most receptive, but once they insert the embryo into the uterus, it’s on its own. Xavier Santamaria, senior clinical scientist at the Carlos Simon Foundation, and his colleagues are trialing a different approach. They’ve developed a device that, at the press of a button, injects the embryo into the uterine lining. JESS HAMZELOU / MITTR In a demonstration I watched with a prototype, Santamaria picked up his speculum and turned to face the vaginal opening of his “patient,” which in this case was just a model of the real thing—a plastic bottom with labia, a vagina, a uterus, and ovaries, two short stumps representing what would normally be a pair of legs held in stirrups. He hunched over and peered inside. “Embryo,” he called. His colleague Maria Pardo, an embryologist, passed him a thin needle containing a mouse embryo she had recently collected from a petri dish. Santamaria’s device allows for the embryo-containing needle to be connected to a delivery tube. This tube also has a camera, a light, and a sensor that lets the doctor know when the needle reaches the uterine lining. Once it has been fed into the uterus, the gynecologist can see the inside of the organ and direct the tube to the lining. JESS HAMZELOU / MITTR “When everything is ready, you just press the button,” Santamaria said as he activated it using a foot pedal, allowing the embryo to be injected. “There it goes.” The team has just started a trial of the device; so far, fewer than 10 women have undergone the procedure, and none of those have become pregnant. But foundation director Carlos Simon is hopeful, noting that the inventors of IVF had to perform over 160 cycles before Louise Brown was born (between 1969 and 1978, that team performed 457 cycles in 250 people, resulting in only two live births). “The trial is ongoing,” he says. 2. Picking the “best” eggs, sperm, and embryos One long-running challenge of IVF has been selection. Say you manage to collect 10 eggs from one partner and a decent-looking semen sample from the other. How do you choose which cells to use? The same question comes up once the resulting embryos have been cultured in a dish for a few days: Which should you transfer to the uterus?

Traditionally, these judgments have been made by eye. Embryologists literally pick the ones that look the best in terms of their shape or, in the case of sperm, how they move. But scientists have been working on alternatives. And over the last decade or so, many have turned to genetic testing to hint at which embryos have the best chances of creating a healthy baby. The most commonly used test is called PGT-A, which stands for preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy. Aneuploidy essentially means having an “incorrect” number of chromosomes, and it is thought that embryos with such characteristics are more likely to be lost through miscarriage or potentially develop into babies with genetic conditions. Once embryologists have created embryos in the lab, they can pinch off a few cells and test them for aneuploidies. The tests are especially beneficial for women over the age of 38, says Alan Penzias, a reproductive endocrinologist at Boston IVF. “You start to see an improvement: more babies and fewer miscarriages,” he says. The tests can shorten the time to pregnancy. This type of genetic testing is possible thanks to multiple advances in technology—not just in genomics, but also in the ability to keep embryos alive in a dish for five to six days and the technique of freezing embryos while the cells undergo testing and thawing them once the results are in. And it has become hugely popular—some clinics do PGT-A tests on all their embryos. But PGT-A won’t give you a perfect readout of a future baby’s genetics, says Sonia Gayete-Lafuente, a reproductive endocrinologist at the Center for Human Reproduction in New York City. And some of the abnormalities might be able to self-correct with time. Gayete-Lafuente and her colleagues have transferred some of those “abnormal” embryos into patients’ uteruses and seen them develop into perfectly healthy children, she says. Other forms of PGT are even more controversial. PGT-P tests are designed to predict an embryo’s chances of developing complex traits that rely on multiple genes, including medical disorders but also physical characteristics like height or cognitive factors like IQ. These tests are new, and they are illegal in some countries, including the UK. But they are gaining ground in the US. Nucleus Genomics—a company that invites customers to “have [their] best baby”—promises to predict traits running the gamut from eye color and intelligence to left-handedness and risk of Alzheimer’s. When I asked IVF practitioners how they might respond if a patient asked for this service, most dodged the question and told me there’s not enough evidence that any of these tests actually work. They also cautioned that selecting for one trait might inadvertently introduce new risks. None seemed especially keen on the idea of using genetic testing for anything other than preventing serious disease. 3. Speeding things up with AI Some seemed more excited about the potential for AI. After all, AI tools are generally good at recognizing patterns. Many researchers have attempted to train tools to spot healthy sperm, eggs, and embryos.
And they’ve had some success. A team at Columbia University Medical Center in New York has developed a device that uses AI to examine semen samples from men who have only tiny numbers of healthy sperm. An embryologist might struggle to find a single healthy sperm in such a sample. But the Sperm Tracking and Recovery (STAR) system can analyze over a million microscope images in an hour. It has already been used to create healthy embryos. The team behind the work announced the first pregnancy resulting from the treatment in November last year. Other teams are using AI tools to advance IVF in more dramatic ways. Around a decade ago, a reproductive endocrinologist named Alejandro Chavez-Badiola began developing an AI tool trained to rank embryos, another to rank eggs, and another to select sperm. He recalls being struck by a realization that these tools were “the brains that have the potential to drive robots in the future,” he says.
4. Using robots to standardize IVF In the early 2020s, Chavez-Badiola and his colleagues decided to combine technologies and develop an automated system for IVF. In theory, a robotic system loaded up with AI tools could undertake most of the steps required in the IVF process: selecting the eggs and sperm, fertilizing eggs to create embryos, culturing those embryos in a dish, and selecting the “best” one for transfer. Such a system could “do everything in a standard way” without ever getting tired, he says. Chavez-Badiola, who is now founder and chief medical officer at Conceivable, started building prototypes by motorizing regular IVF equipment and connecting it to computers. He and his colleagues started testing their system with animal cells before eventually moving on to human ones. “We were able to prove that integrating robots to automate different steps in IVF is doable,” he says. The device is now being used to prepare sperm and eggs and create embryos. At least 19 children have been born following the automated IVF. It is early days, but Chavez-Badiola is hoping that future iterations of the machine could each process thousands of IVF cycles in a year, potentially making the procedure more affordable and accessible. Many in the field are excited about the potential for automated devices like Conceivable’s. “This is all time saved for the embryologists,” says Laura Rienzi, a clinical embryologist and scientific director of the IVIRMA network of fertility centers in Italy. She also hopes it will help standardize IVF treatments. “Automation [will allow for] every patient to be treated in the same way in every single lab in the world,” she says. 5. Controversial edits are on the table There’s a catch, however: All these technologies rely on the availability of at least some healthy sperm, eggs, and embryos at the outset. Embryologists and IVF patients have to work with what they’ve got. And sometimes, what they’ve got won’t result in a healthy baby.  That’s why some scientists are proposing a controversial idea: using gene-editing technologies like CRISPR to tinker with the genome of an IVF embryo before it is implanted. The biophysicist He Jiankui infamously took this approach to create embryos that resulted in the births of three children in the late 2010s. He was widely condemned by the scientific community and ultimately spent three years in a Chinese prison. 
His former romantic partner Cathy Tie, who now leads startup Origin Genomics, is pursuing the technology as a potential way to prevent serious disease in children. At a recent event held at the Hastings Center for Bioethics, Tie made the case for using embryo editing to prevent diseases like cystic fibrosis, Huntington’s, and sickle-cell. It won’t be straightforward from a technical, legal, or ethical perspective. Diseases that are known to be caused by single-gene mutations are good first candidates, but as the Center for Human Reproduction’s Gayete-Lafuente points out, most diseases are much more complicated than that. “I wish we could understand the genetic basis of every disease to be able to prevent it,” she says. So far, we can’t. Besides, most diseases can be influenced by our diets, behaviors, and environments as well as our genes. As things stand, no one knows if editing a human embryo to eliminate the risk of one disease might increase a future child’s risk of some other disorder. And some scientists worry that such edits might be a slippery slope to genetic enhancement or eugenics. Rienzi hopes that the technology might be developed in a safe way with regulatory oversight, and only for a specific list of diseases. “It has to be within a legal context,” she says. “But to me, it’s a dream.” In the meantime, the field looks set to keep transforming with the development of new technologies that are already creating healthy babies. Watch this space. 

The class of 2026 is the first generation to start and finish college with ChatGPT.They arrived on campus in the fall of 2022 just as AI was beginning to reshape how people learn, create, and work. This generation was ChatGPT’s earliest adopters, sharing the tool with their parents and siblings, friends and teachers. Now, they’re graduating into a world where changes in technology are accelerating every day.Over the past few years, I’ve spent time visiting campuses, speaking with students and educators, and watching how young people are actually using AI in their daily lives. What I’ve seen has challenged many of the assumptions people make about this generation.Many students aren’t using AI to avoid work. They’re using it to attempt things they wouldn’t have thought possible before.I’ve met students who are building study tools for classmates. Translating mental health resources for underserved communities. Advancing scientific research. Designing accessibility tools for peers with disabilities. Turning side projects into real organizations with real impact.Again and again, I’ve met students who discovered something surprisingly powerful: they don’t have to wait. As Kyle Scenna, a 24 year-old ChatGPT Futures honoree and entrepreneur from the University of Waterloo told us: “I never thought the gap between noticing a problem and building something real could get this small.” He’s not alone in this feeling.This generation doesn’t have to wait to become experts before getting started.They don’t have to wait for funding before building.They don’t have to wait for permission before contributing.That realization—that you can turn an idea into something tangible faster than ever before—is what inspired ChatGPT Futures.Celebrating AI Creators, Explorers and Advocates in the Class of 2026These honorees represent over 20 universities and institutions from Vanderbilt and the University of Toronto to Oxford, Georgia Tech and many others.Each member of the inaugural class will receive a $10,000 grant to continue advancing their work and will receive access to our frontier models.What connects them is not a specific discipline or background. It’s a mindset. They saw new tools emerge, got curious, and decided to build. That may become the defining and critical characteristic of this generation.There are understandable questions about what AI might mean for learning, creativity, and jobs. I work on those questions every day with partners throughout the education ecosystem. But the students I’ve met have also given me a tangible view of what AI can unlock right now. It’s agency.AI doesn’t replace ambition. It amplifies it.For decades, the ability to build something—whether a product, a research project, a movement, or a company—often depended on access. Access to technical training, institutional support, networks, or funding. Those barriers haven’t disappeared, but they are beginning to shift. Michelle Lawson, a 20-year-old student at Smith College and a ChatGPT Futures honoree shared with us, “I’ve always believed that you can achieve everything that you can imagine, as long as you’re given the right support and resources. AI has made that happen not only for myself, but for hundreds of thousands of people.”Today, a student with curiosity and determination can prototype an idea faster, learn new skills independently, and contribute meaningfully in ways that once required far more resources.That doesn’t make human judgment, creativity, or hard work less important. If anything, it makes them more so.Because the students who will thrive in this next chapter won’t simply be the ones who know how AI works. They’ll be the ones who know how to use it thoughtfully: to learn continuously, identify meaningful problems, collaborate effectively, and create things that matter to other people.Agency Starts in ClassroomsEducation has a critical role to play in unlocking this sense of agency for all students. The goal is not simply to teach students how AI works or how to prompt effectively. Schools and universities must create space for students to build and create with AI, guided by teachers.The goal should not just be AI literacy. We need to help students become adaptable thinkers and builders—people who can navigate ambiguity, pursue ideas with curiosity, and turn learning into action.But more than anything, we hope this program shines a light on a broader truth: The future of AI will not be defined only by the capabilities of the technology itself.It will be defined by the people who choose to use it with curiosity, responsibility, creativity, and purpose. “The exciting thing is this is just the beginning,” Nolan Windham, a 23-year-old Head of AI at a prominent hedge fund and ChatGPT Futures honoree told me. “Many young people will recognize their place as teachers for a society looking to learn to use the technology of the future.”Congratulations to the inaugural ChatGPT Futures Class of 2026. We can’t wait to see the future you’ll build.

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. Inexpensive seafloor-hopping submersibles could stoke deep-sea science—and mining Last week, two oblong neon submersibles started to descend nearly 6,000 meters into the Pacific Ocean. Throughout the rest of May, they will map the seafloor in search of critical mineral deposits.  If all goes well, the vehicles, built by Orpheus Ocean, could help scientists probe the vastly understudied deep sea—and the resources it holds—at a fraction of the cost of existing systems. But the same submersibles are also attracting deep-sea mining companies, raising concerns about environmental impacts. Find out why they’re drawing so much attention.
—Hannah Richter The new war room: 10 Things That Matter in AI Right Now  A new kind of system has entered the war room: conversational AI tools that commanders turn to not just for analysis, but for advice. 
One US defense official told MIT Technology Review that personnel might give these advice engines a list of potential targets to help decide which to strike first. China is commissioning similar tools too. But as the systems gain traction, they’re also sparking concerns about AI-generated errors, a lack of transparency, and Big Tech gaining undue influence over what information gets seen.  Here’s how these AI advice engines could impact the battlefield. —James O’Donnell The new war room is one of the 10 Things That Matter in AI Right Now, our list of the big ideas, trends, and advances in the field that are driving progress today—and will shape what’s possible tomorrow. MIT Technology Review Narrated: is fake grass a bad idea? The AstroTurf wars are far from over.  In 2001, Americans installed just over 7 million square meters of synthetic turf. By 2024, that number was 79 million square meters—enough to carpet all of Manhattan and then some. The increase worries folks who study microplastics and environmental pollution.   While the plastic-making industry insists that synthetic fields are safe if properly installed, lots of researchers think that isn’t so.  —Douglas Main 

This is our latest story to be turned into an MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish 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 Elon Musk pushed OpenAI to go commercial, its president has testifiedGreg Brockman said Musk tried to turn it into a for-profit company years ago. (NYT $)+ Musk allegedly wanted full control so he could raise $80 billion to colonize Mars. (Reuters $)+ The Tesla CEO claims he intended for OpenAI to remain a non-profit. (BBC)+ Here’s what happened in week one of Musk v. Altman. (MIT Technology Review) 2 Google and Meta are building AI agents to rival OpenClawGoogle’s Gemini agent will take actions on the users’ behalf. (Business Insider)+ Meta’s will be powered by its Muse Spark AI model. (FT $)+ Hustlers are cashing in on China’s OpenClaw AI craze. (MIT Technology Review) 3 Anthropic will spend $200 billion on Google’s cloud and chipsThe investment will be spread across five years. (The Information $)+ It’s part of a broader AI compute war. (Axios)  4 DeepSeek is nearing a $45 billion valuationA state-backed “Big Fund” will lead a new investment round in the company. (FT $)+ Beijing is pushing to build alternatives to Nvidia and OpenAI. (Bloomberg $)+ Here’s why DeepSeek’s new model matters. (MIT Technology Review) 5 Anthropic is launching AI agents for banks and financial firmsThe 10 tools cover a broad mix of financial services tasks. (WSJ $)+ They’re part of a push to win over Wall Street. (Bloomberg $)
6 Apple will pay $250 million to settle an AI lawsuitIt was accused of misleading iPhone buyers about Apple Intelligence. (BBC)+ Some iPhone owners are eligible to receive up to $95. (NYT $) 7 Cheap laptops and phones may be disappearing because of AI demand Competition for memory chips is driving up gadget prices worldwide. (The Guardian)
8 Google DeepMind workers in the UK have voted to unionizeAs a result of Google’s work with the Pentagon. (Wired $) 9 Pennsylvania is suing Character.AI over chatbots posing as doctorsInvestigators say the bots claimed to hold medical licenses. (NPR)+ How well do AI health tools work? (MIT Technology Review) 10 Scientists created a “living” plastic that destroys itself on commandIt could help to eliminate microplastics. (Gizmodo) Quote of the day “I want AI to benefit humanity, not to facilitate a genocide.”  —An anonymous Google DeepMind worker tells the Guardian that Google’s work with the Israel Defense Forces had motivated their vote to unionize. One More Thing
COURTESY OF BENEATH THE WAVES How tracking animal movement may save the planet For decades, wildlife researchers have dreamed of building an “Internet of Animals”—a big-data system that monitors and analyzes animal behavior to help us understand the planet. Advances in sensors, AI, and satellite technology are now bringing that vision to reality. Scientists want the system to track 100,000 sensor-tagged animals. They believe it could reveal how species respond to climate change and ecosystem loss—and even predict environmental disasters. Read the full story on how their idea could save our planet. —Matthew Ponsford 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.) + Master the art of fried chicken with this definitive chef’s guide.+ Find out why some birds hop and others walk in this breakdown of avian lifestyles.+ This vintage Hollywood map shows how California’s landscape stood in for everything from the Nile to the Alps.+ Here’s a fascinating look at the “Flatbed” airplane that was surprisingly efficient on paper but never left the hangar.

GPT‑5.5 Instant is our latest Instant model, and explained in our blog⁠. The comprehensive safety mitigation approach for this model is similar to previous models in this series, but this is the first Instant model that we are treating as High capability in our Cybersecurity and Biological & Chemical Preparedness categories, and implementing appropriate safeguards.In this card we also refer to GPT‑5.5 Instant as gpt-5.5-instant. Note that there is not a model named GPT‑5.4 Instant, and the main model to baseline against is GPT‑5.3 Instant. Additionally, we refer to GPT‑5.5⁠(opens in a new window) as GPT‑5.5 Thinking to avoid confusion with the instant model.

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. Week one of the Musk v. Altman trial: what it was like in the room Two of the most powerful figures in AI—Sam Altman and Elon Musk—are in the middle of a landmark legal showdown, with Musk alleging he was misled about OpenAI becoming a for-profit company. Our reporter Michelle Kim, who also happens to be a lawyer, has been in court each day, and has broken down the first week’s key moments in her latest report. In a new Q&A, she also reveals what it was like in the room, the new details that have emerged about how Musk and OpenAI operate—and what we can expect from this week’s proceedings. Find out what she’s discovered so far, and if you want to keep up with MIT Technology Review’s ongoing coverage of the Musk v. Altman trial, follow @techreview or @michelletomkim on X.
—James O’Donnell This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things AI. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Monday. 
A blueprint for using AI to strengthen democracy —Andrew Sorota & Josh Hendler lead work on AI and democracy at the Office of Eric Schmidt. Faster than many realize, AI is becoming the primary interface through which we form beliefs and participate in democratic self-governance. This shift could further strain already fragile institutions, but it could also help address problems like polarization and declining civic engagement. What happens next depends on design choices that are already being made, whether we know it or not. Here’s how we can harness AI to strengthen democracy. Artificial scientists: 10 Things That Matter in AI Right Now Large language models can already assist scientists in all sorts of ways, from writing code to searching through literature and drafting articles. But companies and labs have a much more ambitious vision. They want to build AI systems that can act as a full member of a scientific team—and even conduct entire research projects. These artificial scientists seem like a win for frontier labs and for society at large. But they could also narrow the scope of scientific inquiry. Read the full story on how artificial scientists could reshape the research process—and what might be lost along the way. —Grace Huckins Artificial scientists is an item on our list of the 10 Things That Matter in AI Right Now, MIT Technology Review’s guide to what’s really worth your attention in the busy, buzzy world of AI. We’re unpacking one item from the list each day here in The Download, so stay tuned.

The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 The Pentagon has struck sweeping AI deals for classified workIt’s signed contracts with Microsoft, Nvidia, AWS, and Reflection AI. (NYT $)+ It wants the US military to be an “AI-first” force. (BBC)+ The announcement leaves Anthropic increasingly isolated. (WP $)+ Here’s how the firms could train on classified data. (MIT Technology Review) 2 Elon Musk has finally settled the SEC lawsuit over the Twitter purchaseHe’s agreed to pay a $1.5 million fine for waiting too long to disclose his initial stock purchases. (Guardian)+ But won’t lose any of the $150 million he allegedly saved. (The Verge)+ Musk allegedly illegally hid his growing Twitter stake. (CBS News) 3 A Chinese court has ruled that firms can’t lay off workers on AI groundsThey can’t terminate employees just to replace them with AI. (Bloomberg $)+ The court said a firm had illegally fired one of its workers. (NPR)+ Chinese tech workers are starting to train their AI doubles—and pushing back. (MIT Technology Review) 4 A gene therapy is helping deaf children hear againIn a trial, 80% of patients gained measurable hearing. (Vox) 5 The White House is vetting AI models before they’re releasedIt may create a new working group to oversee AI development. (NYT $)+ A war over AI regulation is coming to the US. (MIT Technology Review) 6 Nature has retracted a paper on ChatGPT’s educational benefitsOver “discrepancies” and a lack of confidence in the findings. (404 Media)+ The paper had already racked up hundreds of citations. (Ars Technica)+ AI giants want to take over the classroom. (MIT Technology Review)
7 GameStop made a $56 billion bid for eBayeBay said it was reviewing the offer. (Ars Technica)+ The bid has drawn skepticism from investors and analysts. (Reuters $) 8 AI systems are increasingly used to monitor workers’ emotionsNew tools claim to measure “agreeability” as well as productivity. (The Atlantic $)
9 Peter Thiel is backing wave-powered data centersHe’s leading a $140 million investment into a startup developing the tech. (FT $) 10 Ask Jeeves is shutting down after nearly 30 years onlineThe closure marks the end of one of the internet’s earliest search engines. (NYT $) Quote of the day “By the end of this week, you and Sam will be the most hated men in America.”  —Elon Musk texted a warning to OpenAI president Greg Brockman two days before their courtroom battle started, NBC News reports. One More Thing SIMON MITCHELL Meet the divers trying to figure out how deep humans can go Two hundred and thirty meters into one of the deepest underwater caves on Earth, a team of extreme divers tested a route to new depth records: breathing hydrogen.
They believe the gas could help the human body withstand underwater pressure significantly past its natural threshold. But the approach is highly experimental—and dangerous. Find out how far they’re willing to go. —Samantha Schuyler 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.)+ Wild horses are roaming in Spain for the first time in 10,000 years.+ Star Wars meets the Renaissance in this bardcore cover of the “Imperial March.”+ Improve your writing by avoiding these six common linguistic pitfalls shared by many Americans.+ From Stephen King’s IT changing the clown industry to Black Widow boosting hair dye sales, here are 12 times movies changed the real world.