In June last year, startup Octavia Carbon began running a high-scale trial in the small town of Gilgil in south-central Kenya. It is using some of the excess energy generated by giant clouds of steam beneath the Earth’s surface to power the prototype of a machine that promises to remove carbon dioxide from the air in a way that the company says is efficient, economical and, crucially, scalable.
The company’s long-term vision is undoubtedly ambitious – it wants to prove that direct air capture (DAC), as the process is known, can be a powerful tool in helping prevent temperatures in the world from rising to more dangerous levels.
But DACs are also a controversial technology, unproven at scale and extremely expensive to operate. Furthermore, Kenya’s Maasai people have plenty of reasons to distrust energy companies. Read the full story.
,Diana Cruzman
This article is also part of the Big Story series: MIT Technology ReviewMost importantly, ambitious reporting. The stories in the series take an in-depth look at the technologies ahead and what they will mean for us and the world we live in. Check out the rest of them here,
AI Wrapped: 14 AI Terms You Can’t Avoid in 2025
If the last 12 months have taught us anything, it’s that the AI hype train shows no signs of slowing down. It’s hard to believe that at the beginning of the year, DeepSeek hadn’t yet turned the entire industry on its head, the meta was better known for trying (and failing) to make the metaverse cool than its constant quest to dominate superintelligence, and vibe coding wasn’t even a thing.
If this is making you feel a little confused, don’t be afraid. Our writers take a look at the AI words that dominated the year, for better or worse. Read the full list.
