This is today’s editiondownload,Our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s happening in the world of technology.
I investigated one of the biggest anti-AI protests ever
pull the plug! pull the plug! Stop procrastinating! Stop procrastinating! For a few hours this Saturday, February 28, I saw a few hundred anti-AI protesters marching through London’s King’s Cross tech hub, home to the UK headquarters of OpenAI, Meta, and Google DeepMind, chanting slogans and waving signs. The march was organized by a coalition of two separate activist groups, Pause AI and Pull the Plug, who described it as the largest protest of its kind to date.
This is all familiar stuff. Researchers have been reporting for years about the harms, both real and imagined, caused by generic AI—particularly models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google DeepMind’s Gemini. What has changed is that those concerns are now being raised by protest movements that can muster significant crowds of people to take to the streets and shout about it. Read the full story.
-Will Douglas Haven
We’re putting more stuff in space than ever before. What’s up here?
The Earth is a medium-sized rock with some water on top, covered with gases that keep everything that lives here alive. At the very edge of that envelope begins a thin but dense layer of man-made, high-tech stuff.
People started preparing there in 1957, and now it has become a real habit. Telescopes look up and out into the wild universe. Humans live in a rotating metal bubble. Over the past five years, the number of active satellites in space has increased from barely 3,000 to nearly 14,000 and climbing. And then there’s the garbage. Here’s a closer look at Earth’s ever-thickening blanket of man-made matter—the anthroposphere.
-Jonathan O’Callaghan
this is the story latest print issue Of MIT Technology Review magazine. If you haven’t already, Subscribe now To receive future points once landed.
MIT Technology Review is a 2026 ASME finalist in reporting
Named by the American Society of Magazine Editors MIT Technology Review As a finalist for the 2026 National Magazine Awards in the reporting category.
The shortlisted story—”We’ve done the math on AI’s energy footprint. Here’s the story you haven’t heard”—is part of our Power Hungry package on AI’s energy burden.
In a rigorous investigation, senior AI reporter James O’Donnell and senior climate reporter Casey Crownheart spent six months combing through hundreds of pages of reports, interviewing experts and crunching the numbers. Read more about what they found out.
What comes after LLM?
The AI industry is organized around LLM: tools, products, and business models. Yet many researchers believe that the next breakthroughs will not look like language models at all. Join us for a LinkedIn Live discussion on Tuesday, March 3 at 12:30 pm ET to learn about the emerging directions that define the next era of AI. register here!
Must read
I’ve scoured the internet to find you today’s funniest/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 The Pentagon wanted Anthropic to analyze bulk data collected from Americans
This proved to be the turning point in negotiations as OpenAI moved to sign a new deal. (atlantic $)+ Anthropic has vowed to legally challenge its “security risk” label. (foot $)
+ Here’s a blow-by-blow look at how the negotiations failed. (NYT $)
+ Cloud downloads are increasing. (techcrunch)
2 Iranian apps and websites hacked after US-Israel attacks
News sites and a religious app were included for displaying anti-military messages. (reuters)
+ He urged the workers to leave the regime and liberate the country. (WSJ $)
+ Not surprisingly, disinformation about X attacks has spread. (wired $)
+ The campaign has disrupted online delivery orders across the Middle East. (bloomberg $)
3 DeepSeek is set to release a new AI model this week
The multimodal V4 is being released ahead of China’s annual parliamentary meetings. (foot $)
4 UK is testing social media ban for under-16s
Hundreds of teens will test overnight digital curfews and screen time limits. (Guardian)
+ What is it like to attend a phone addiction meeting? (boston globe $)
5 celebrities are winning huge sums of money playing on slots at this leading crypto casino
In fact, their lucky wins seem to increase when they are livestreaming. (bloomberg $)
6 America is desperate to steal China’s vital mineral lead
The winner essentially controls global computing, aerospace and defense. (economist $)
+ This rare earth metal shows us the future of our planet’s resources. (MIT Technology Review)
7 How the laser became the military’s weapon of choice
From Ukraine to America, soldiers are deploying laser guns. But why? (atlantic $)
+ They are a vital part of the US arsenal in patrolling the southern border. (New Yorker $)
+ This giant microwave could change the future of warfare. (MIT Technology Review)
8 How quantum entanglement became big business
It promises unhackable communications—but is it too good to be true? (new scientists $)
+ Useful quantum computing is inevitable – and increasingly imminent. (MIT Technology Review)
9 iPod proving to be a hit among Gen Z
Even though Apple discontinued the music player four years ago. (NYT $)
10 Chinese parents are joining matchmaking apps in droves
In an effort to get their adult children married as quickly as humanly possible. (Nikkei Asia)
today’s thought
“Day by day it seems untenable… Some managers know this is the case, but executives just keep pointing to some bigger AI picture.”
-An unnamed Amazon employee describes the stress of trying to increase productivity amid the company’s commitment to reducing headcount financial Times.
one more thing
The iPad was intended to revolutionize accessibility. What happened?
On April 3, 2010, Steve Jobs introduced the iPad. What was originally a more convenient form factor for most people was far more consequential for non-speakers: a life-changing revolution in access to a portable, powerful communications device for only a few hundred dollars.
But a piece of hardware, no matter how impressively designed and engineered, is only valuable as much as what a person can do with it. After the release of the iPad, there was a flood of new, easy-to-use enhancements and alternative communication apps that users desperately needed, never arriving.
Today, there are only about a half-dozen apps, each retailing for $200 to $300, that ask users to select from a menu of crudely drawn icons to generate text and synthesized speech. This is a disappointingly slow pace of development for such an essential human task. Read the full story.
-Julie Kim
we can still have good things
A place of relaxation, fun and distractions to brighten your day. (Any ideas? drop me a line Or make them sneak up on me.)
+ Neanderthal by name, not by nature—this prehistoric man Was amazingly romantic, thank you very much.
+ If you’re lucky enough to live in Boston, make sure you enjoy these beautiful bar.
+ Hmm, this Sticky Hoisin Sausage Traybake Sounds interesting.
+ george takeiYou are a complete maverick.
