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Is a secure AI assistant possible?

AI agents are a risky business. Even when stuck inside the chatbox window, LLMs will make mistakes and behave badly. Once they have tools that they can use to interact with the outside world, such as web browsers and email addresses, the consequences of those mistakes become far more serious. That might explain why the…
The Download: inside the QuitGPT movement, and EVs in Africa

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. A “QuitGPT” campaign is urging people to cancel their ChatGPT subscriptions In September, Alfred Stephen, a freelance software developer in Singapore, purchased a ChatGPT Plus subscription, which costs $20 a month and offers…
EVs could be cheaper to own than gas cars in Africa by 2040

Electric vehicles could be economically competitive in Africa sooner than expected. Just 1% of new cars sold across the continent in 2025 were electric, but a new analysis finds that with solar off-grid charging, EVs could be cheaper to own than gas vehicles by 2040. There are major barriers to higher EV uptake in many…
A “QuitGPT” campaign is urging people to cancel their ChatGPT subscriptions

In September, Alfred Stephen, a freelance software developer in Singapore, purchased a ChatGPT Plus subscription, which costs $20 a month and offers more access to advanced models, to speed up his work. But he grew frustrated with the chatbot’s coding abilities and its gushing, meandering replies. Then he came across a post on Reddit about…
The Download: Making AI Work, and why the Moltbook hype is similar to Pokémon

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. A first look at Making AI Work, MIT Technology Review’s new AI newsletter Are you interested in learning more about the ways in which AI is actually being used? We’ve launched a new…
Why the Moltbook frenzy was like Pokémon

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. Lots of influential people in tech last week were describing Moltbook, an online hangout populated by AI agents interacting with one another, as a glimpse into the future. It appeared to show…
The Download: what Moltbook tells us about AI hype, and the rise and rise of AI therapy

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. Moltbook was peak AI theater For a few days recently, the hottest new hangout on the internet was a vibe-coded Reddit clone called Moltbook, which billed itself as a social network for bots.…
Making AI Work, MIT Technology Review’s new AI newsletter, is here

For years, our newsroom has explored AI’s limitations and potential dangers, as well as its growing energy needs. And our reporters have looked closely at how generative tools are being used for tasks such as coding and running scientific experiments. But how is AI actually being used in fields like health care, climate tech, education,…
Moltbook was peak AI theater

For a few days this week the hottest new hangout on the internet was a vibe-coded Reddit clone called Moltbook, which billed itself as a social network for bots. As the website’s tagline puts it: “Where AI agents share, discuss, and upvote. Humans welcome to observe.” We observed! Launched on January 28 by Matt Schlicht,…
The Download: helping cancer survivors to give birth, and cleaning up Bangladesh’s garment industry

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. An experimental surgery is helping cancer survivors give birth An experimental surgical procedure that’s helping people have babies after they’ve had treatment for bowel or rectal cancer. Radiation and chemo can have pretty…