The Download: a censorship conspiracy theory and the first virus created by AI

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 ideas of a vast censorship network moved from the online fringe to Trump policy For years, narratives about a “censorship-industrial complex” spread in right-wing circles. The theory claimed that, under…

7 August 2026

How ideas of a vast censorship network moved from the online fringe to Trump policy

This article was produced in partnership with Type Investigations, with support from the Wayne Barrett Project. One morning in April 2025, employees of a small office in the US State Department got the email many of them had been dreading.  For months, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency had been cutting a wide swath through…

7 August 2026

The Download: Google’s AI shake-up and Meta’s rogue model

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. Google’s AI empire is being reshaped. Here’s what’s changed. After a wave of painful losses in the tech talent wars, delays to its next flagship model, and murmurings of poor morale,…

6 August 2026

Puzzle Corner

Ready for a fresh set of puzzles? Click here for the September/October 2026 Puzzle Corner, brought to you by Michael S. Branicky, ScD ’95, of the Puzzle Corner Puzzle Crew (aka PC2), which also includes Edward Faulkner ’03, MEng ’04, and Abe Kunin ’03. This column includes solutions to the May/June issue. Send problems, solutions (by October…

5 August 2026

The Download: NASA’s new telescope and Chinese tech import curbs

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. NASA’s new dark energy space telescope can also detect killer asteroids   At the end of August, NASA is set to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from Kennedy Space…

5 August 2026

NASA’s new dark-energy space telescope can also detect killer asteroids

At the end of August, NASA is set to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Its goal is to help us better understand how the universe works, from the glue-like dark matter that keeps galaxies together to the elusive dark energy that drives the expansion of the cosmos.…

5 August 2026

The Download: US robot restrictions and ICE’s DNA grab

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. Trump’s AI protectionism has come for robotics   —James O’Donnell  Humanoid robots usually elicit more cringe than awe: They stumble, kick children, and despite advances are still worse at using their hands than my toddler. It’s…

4 August 2026

Trump’s AI protectionism has come for robotics

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. Humanoid robots usually elicit more cringe than awe: They stumble, kick children, and despite advances are still worse at using their hands than my toddler. It’s a nascent industry, and such robots…

3 August 2026

The Download: reward hacking explained and suspected Iranian cyberattacks

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. Here’s why AI agents lie and cheat to reach their goals When two OpenAI models hacked into Hugging Face last month, they weren’t trying to make money or commit sabotage—they were…

3 August 2026

Here’s why AI agents lie and cheat to reach their goals

MIT Technology Review Explains: Let our writers untangle the complex, messy world of technology to help you understand what’s coming next. You can read more from the series here. When two OpenAI models hacked into the website Hugging Face in July, they weren’t trying to make money or commit sabotage—they were just looking for answers…

3 August 2026