The Download: a reality check for geoengineering and the science of interoception

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.

Hacking the atmosphere: geoengineering gets a reality check

Solar geoengineering, the controversial idea that we could deliberately intervene in the climate system to counteract global warming, is moving beyond computer simulations and into the practical engineering challenges required to make it real.

Researchers are now working on aircraft, materials, and other systems for solar geoengineering. But as they delve into these details, they’re finding that even early deployment would require significant new infrastructure, time, and investment.

Find out what happens when solar geoengineering encounters the realities of trying to cool the planet.

—James Temple

MIT Technology Review Narrated: inside interoception, the hidden sense of how you feel inside

Scientists have a word for how we sense ourselves from the inside: interoception. Today, thanks to a 2021 Nobel Prize and new tools that can map internal signaling across the body, research into interoception is taking off.

As researchers decode how signals move between body and brain, a clearer picture is starting to take shape—with implications for how we treat conditions from obesity to anxiety.

—Katherine W. Isaacs

This is our latest storyto be turned into an MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish each week on Spotifyand 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 SpaceX is now valued higher than Amazon 
Its market value hit $2.659 trillion yesterday. (Axios)
+ A post-IPO stock surge also briefly pushed it above Microsoft’s.(Quartz)
+ It’s now the world’s fifth most valuable company. (Guardian)
+ SpaceX is acquiring AI coding startup Cursor for $60 billion.(CNBC)

2 G7 leaders want access to top US AI models
They’re pushing to escape restrictions on the likes of Fable 5. (Reuters $)
+ The Mythos shutdown has sparked a global scramble for sovereign AI. (Fortune)
+ The world is looking to ditch US AI models. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Trump’s AI export strategy has run into Trump’s export controls
His administration risks undermining its own AI plans. (Axios)
+ It now effectively has a licensing regime for frontier AI. (Fortune)
+ Here’s how a top Chinese AI model overcame US sanctions. (MIT Technology Review) 

4 Huawei’s big comeback has exposed the limits of US chip controls
It’s overcome restrictions on advanced chipmaking gear. (Financial Times $)
+ The AI boom has ignited Asia’s chip companies. (NYT $)

5 AI fears are pushing Silicon Valley toward gene-editing startups
They want smarter babies to counter superintelligent AI. (Mother Jones)
+ The pursuit of perfect babies is an ethical mess.(MIT Technology Review)

6 A brain implant has enabled a speechless ALS patient to work full-time
The system translates his brain activity into speech. (The Register)
+ He’s become the first “power user” of a BCI. (MIT Technology Review)

7 A leak has revealed details of Peter Thiel’s secret society
Its program ranges from cult-building to prepping for World War III. (Wired $)

8 ChatGPT’s market share has slipped below 50% for the first time
Thanks to the rise of Gemini and Claude. (TechCrunch)

9 A quantum state that lasts forever may finally be within our grasp
Experiments suggest that quantum “eternity” is possible. (New Scientist $)

10 Commodore has made a digital detox phone that isn’t dumb
The Callback combines gadget nostalgia with modern needs. (The Verge)

Quote of the day

“The Entity List is like whack-a-mole and you’ve got to ‌keep whacking ⁠the moles.” 

—Philip Luck, who studies global supply chains at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, tells Reuters that a lack of new blacklistings is likely leading American innovations to adversaries who could use them against the US.

One More Thing

COURTESY OF DEEPMIND

This is the reason Demis Hassabis started DeepMind

Watching DeepMind’s AI master the ancient board game Go, Demis Hassabis realized that his company was ready to take on one of the most important and complicated puzzles in biology: predicting the structure of proteins. 

The result was AlphaFold2, an AI that could predict the shape of proteins down to the nearest atom. “It’s the most complex thing we’ve ever done,” Hassabis told MIT Technology Review.

Taking on scientific problems is the culmination of what Hassabis set out to achieve, and it’s what he wants to be known for.  “This is the reason I started DeepMind,” he says. “In fact, it’s why I’ve worked my whole career in AI.”

Discover how he plans to transform science with AI. 

—Will Douglas Heaven

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.)

+ This mesmerising footage of wind rolling through grass looks like CGI.
+ The glorious early days of internet discovery have been revived by the return of StumbleUpon.
+ A German subway entrance has been delightfully designed as an old tram car crashing into the pavement.
+ The Last Museum lets you search across 5.8 million museum artworks spanning from 3000 BC to the present day.