Nvidia is aiming to build a new supercomputer.
The Download is our weekly newsletterthat gives you a daily dose on what’s happening in the worldof technology.
Inside a story that enraged OpenAI.
– Niall Firth executive editor, MIT Technology Review.
Karen Hao, a reporter at MIT Technology Review and a senior, pitched to me a story in 2019 about a company called OpenAI. It was her largest assignment to date. Hao’s reporting feat took a series twists and turn over the next months, revealing how OpenAI had strayed far from its original mission.
This story is a prescient view of a company that’s at a turning point, or has already passed it. OpenAI was not pleased with the outcome. Hao’s book Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares In Sam Altman’s OpenAI (19459038) is an in-depth look at the company that started the AI arms race and what it means for us all. This excerpt is a story about the origins of that reporting.
The water in this spa is heated using bitcoin mining.
On first glance, Bathhouse Spa in Brooklyn appears to be like other high-end spas. What sets it apart is out of sight: a closet full of cryptocurrency-mining computers that not only generate bitcoins but also heat the spa’s pools, marble hammams, and showers.
When Bathhouse cofounder Jason Goodman first opened its Williamsburg location in 2019, he used traditional pool heaters. After diving into the worlds of bitcoin and cryptocurrency, he realized that he could integrate cryptocurrency mining into his business. Read the complete story.
–Carrie Klein.
The story in this issue is from our most recent print magazineand it is about how technology is changing the way we create. Subscribe now to and read it.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
Nvidia wants a supercomputer with AI in Taiwan
Trump’s tariffs are upending existing supply chains. (WSJ$)
+ Jensen Huang denied that Nvidia chips were being diverted to China. Bloomberg ($)
Grok, a 2 xAI chatbot, dabbled with Holocaust denial
Grok said it was “skeptical,” about points that historians agreed were facts. (Rolling Stone $)
+ The chatbot blamed the comments made on a programming mistake. The Guardian
Apple plans to completely overhaul Siri
in order to make it a modern assistant. (Bloomberg$)
4 Dentists are concerned by RFK Jr.’s fluoride banning
especially in rural America. (Ars Technica, )
+ Florida is the second state in the country to ban fluoride from public water. NBC News
Five fewer people want to work in America’s factories
This is a problem, especially when Trump is so determined to kickstart the manufacturing industry. (WSJ$)
+ The US manufacturing recovery could be threatened by sweeping tariffs. MIT Technology Review
Meet the crypto investors who are hoping to get the President’s attention
These investors see Trump’s dinner with the meme coin as an opportunity to advance their agendas. (WP $)
+ They are also selling their coins. The criminals are targeting crypto bigwigs. WSJ ($)
+ Security is becoming a necessity. [Bloomberg[Bloomberg $]
Naloxone was a major factor. (Vox )
+ The federal government tracks changes in the supply chain of street drugs. MIT Technology Review
8 Chatbots love the heads of companies that made them.
But not so much the leaders of their rivals. (FT $)
+[194536]What if AI could be made less biased by us? MIT Technology Review
Technology is a double edged sword
Technology can be both a source of comfort and anger. The Atlantic$]
Meet the people addicted to watching nature live streams.
They say that checking in with animals helps them put their own problems in perspective. The Guardian
Today’s Quote
People are scared. They don’t understand where they fit into this new world.
–Angela Jiang who is working at a startup that explores the impact of AI in the labor market told the Wall Street Journal (19459038) about the struggles of tech job candidates trying to find new jobs in today’s economy.
Another thing
The Rubin Observatory’s role in helping us understand dark energy and dark matter It is possible to put a number on how much knowledge we have about the universe. This is how much ordinary matter, including planets, stars, galaxies, and the dust and gases between them makes up the cosmos. Dark matter and dark energies, two mysterious entities that we cannot explain, make up the other 95%.
Previous work has begun pulling apart these dueling forces, but dark matter and dark energy remain shrouded in a blanket of questions–critically, what exactly are they?
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is one of the 10 breakthrough technologies we have selected for 2025. Rubin, which boasts the largest digital camera created to date, is expected to study cosmos with the highest resolution ever once it begins observations this year. Rubin’s new telescope could help narrow down theories about dark energy and dark matter. Here’s how.
– Jenna Ahart.
You can still enjoy nice things.
A place to relax, have fun and distract you. (Do you have any ideas? Drop a line or Skeet ’em
Archaeologists are trying to solve the mystery of how thousands of dinosaurs died in what is now a forest near Alberta.
Before Brian Johnson became a member of AC/DC he sang in this very distinctive vacuum cleaner ad.Wealthy Londoners add spas to their gardens because, why not?
I must eat crystal breakfast !
