Curated from MIT Technology Review — Here’s what matters right now:
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. How these two brothers became go-to experts on America’s “mystery drone” invasion In 2024 alone, 350 known drone incursions were reported over a hundred different US military installations. A lack of coordination or even clarity from the White House, Pentagon or US intelligence community has led some in domestic law enforcement to turn to an unlikely source for help cracking the case of these mystery drones: two UFO hunters out on Long Island in New York called John and Gerald Tedesco. The twin brothers each spent about three decades in the private sector working in electrical engineering and instrumentation design before they decided to kit out an old RV with an array of homemade signals collection equipment. What the Tedescos appear to have done, in their effort to bring a maximalist approach to the sensors directed at these suspected alien spacecraft, is independently engineer the kind of aerial surveillance capability rarely seen outside the classified world. Read the full story . —Matthew Phelan This story is from our forthcoming print issue, which is all about security. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land. Open the pod bay doors, Claude The trope of AI going rogue, disobeying commands and threatening its human operators is well-worn in Sci-Fi. But it’s no longer just the stuff of fiction. AI doomerism, the idea that this technology—specifically its hypothetical upgrades, artificial general intelligence and super-intelligence—will crash civilizations, even kill us all, is now riding another wave. The weird thing is that such fears are now driving much-needed action to regulate AI—even if the justification for that action is a bit bonkers. Read the full story . —Will Douglas Heaven This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here . The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 xAI is suing Apple and OpenAI Elon Musk has accused them of illegally conspiring to thwart xAI from competing. ( The Verge ) + The legal action comes after Grok failed to top Apple’s App Store charts. ( NYT $) + The lawsuit doesn’t mention AI companies buying access to other platforms. ( The Register ) 2 Donald Trump has threatened tariffs against countries unfriendly to US tech Whether that’s in the form of digital taxes, legislation or regulations. ( The Guardian ) + Europe’s Digital Service Act appears to be a prime target. ( Reuters ) + How much do AI companies care about the US in return though, really? ( The Atlantic $) 3 Intel doesn’t want the US government to take a 10% stake in its business It fears the deal could affect its international sales and trigger an employee backlash. ( WP $) + Intel desperately ne
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Original reporting: MIT Technology Review