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. Silicon Valley claims to know the future. So why did it get the midterms so wrong? —Aaron Zamost, a tech communications consultant and a former executive at Square The self-styled visionaries…

13 November 2026

The self-styled visionaries of Silicon Valley, leaders like OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and SpaceX boss Elon Musk, have built careers claiming to see the future. Long-term vision is currency: Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg built a 10-year road map for Facebook in 2016, and Google famously told investors before its public offering that it was unconcerned…

13 November 2026

Scientists have been working on ways to decode brain activity for decades. Teams have developed brain implants that can be used to control robotic limbs and computers, and even to “speak.” The people who volunteer for trials of those devices play a vital role in that research, and they ought to be recognized for their…

13 November 2026

Representatives from Nvidia told Illinois representative Bill Foster that it would be technically possible to implement the anti-smuggling measures called for in the Chip Security Act, Foster told MIT Technology Review in an interview on Thursday, even while an industry group claimed they were “potentially infeasible.”  Foster, a Democrat who serves on the Committee on…

12 November 2026

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. What to know about this year’s UN climate talks Thousands of delegates, lobbyists, and journalists have gathered in Antalya, Turkey, for COP31, the annual UN climate talks. But this year’s negotiations…

12 November 2026

It’s that time of year again: Thousands of delegates, lobbyists, and journalists are gathered for the annual UN climate talks, taking place this time in Antalya, Turkey. COP31 officially kicked off on November 8, marking the beginning of negotiations on one of the biggest stages of the climate world. Turkey and Australia are cohosting this…

11 November 2026

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. Six wild ideas for perpetuating your mind As we age, we forget most of what we’ve experienced, yet there’s still undeniable continuity: At 30, or 50, or 70, you will still…

11 November 2026

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. Nancy Pelosi’s replacement is ready to regulate AI —Grace Huckins As a California state senator, Scott Wiener authored legislation aimed at curbing the risks of advanced AI. Now, after winning a…

10 November 2026

The metals industry has experienced transformational moments before: the Bessemer process, flash smelting, electric arc furnaces, and modern continuous casting all changed what was possible. Yet, for more than a century, most extraction processes rely on techniques and pathways that would be familiar to metallurgists from generations ago. Processes have become larger and control systems…

10 November 2026

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. As voters went to the polls across the US last week, I was in Ashburn, Virginia, part of what’s known as Data Center Alley—the world’s largest data center hub. It’s also where…

9 November 2026