What OpenAI\u2019s latest controversy tells us about the future of math<\/strong><\/h3>\nOpenAI says its agents have solved one of the most important open problems in mathematics. Under normal circumstances, that would be a huge milestone. But the announcement has been overshadowed by accusations that OpenAI failed to credit researchers whose AI-assisted work influenced its solution.<\/p>\n
Whether those accusations are true or not, the episode may mark a turning point in the history of mathematics. AI models now seem essential for making progress on the field\u2019s most important problems, but solving them may demand resources available only to a couple of frontier AI companies.<\/p>\n
If that\u2019s the future we are headed for, it is unclear how human mathematicians will fit into it.<\/p>\n
Read on to see how AI could reshape mathematics.<\/p>\n
\u2014Grace Huckins<\/em><\/p>\nBatteries just broke another record in the US<\/strong><\/h3>\nBattery installations hit a new record in the US in the second quarter of 2026, with 20.2 gigawatt-hours of new capacity coming online. That\u2019s enough to supply the daily electricity needs of 600,000 homes.<\/p>\n
The surge puts the country on track for another record year, driven by cheaper batteries and an urgent need for more energy storage as renewables are added to the grid. But the boom looks different for grid-scale and residential batteries.<\/p>\n
Take a closer look at the forces reshaping the US battery market.<\/p>\n
\u2014Casey Crownhart<\/em><\/p>\nThis entrepreneur is developing agents that can plan ahead<\/strong><\/h3>\nDanijar Hafner\u2019s office in San Francisco\u2019s SoMa district sits mostly empty, but what it lacks in decor, it makes up for in robots. Humanoids of various shapes and sizes hang like marionettes from racks that run down the center of the wide-open space.<\/p>\n
Hafner won\u2019t say too much about his new venture just yet, but describes it as a continuation of his longtime work to enable AI to navigate environments it has not encountered in training.<\/p>\n
Over the years, the 31-year-old has honed his approach by pitting agents trained within his world models against popular video games. More recently, he\u2019s begun migrating his agents out of the virtual world and into physical reality.<\/p>\n
Learn more about Hafner\u2019s work teaching AI about our world.<\/p>\n
\u2014Mat Honan<\/em><\/p>\nDanijar Hafner is one of the artificial intelligence honorees on our 35 Innovators Under 35 list for 2026. Meet the <\/strong>rest of them here<\/strong>, or <\/strong>explore the full list<\/strong> across the biotechnology, AI, computing and robotics, and climate and energy categories.<\/strong><\/p>\nMIT Technology Review Narrated: data from drones in Ukraine is fueling a new Wild West marketplace<\/strong><\/h3>\nBattlefields in Ukraine are littered with the remnants of drones. But behind all that wreckage, there\u2019s a new gold mine for the defense sector: the data those drones generate.<\/p>\n
Ukraine has begun making millions of data points gathered during tens of thousands of drone flights available to military contractors and commercial companies. It\u2019s a quick way to attract funding and partnerships, but it turns the front line into a model training site, using the chaos of war to create conditions that AI companies struggle to reproduce.<\/p>\n
As this new industry takes shape, we need a regulatory system that ensures battlefield data isn\u2019t treated like ordinary commercial material.<\/p>\n
This is our latest <\/strong>article<\/strong> to become an MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish each week on <\/strong>Spotify<\/strong> and <\/strong>Apple Podcasts<\/strong>. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it\u2019s released.<\/strong><\/p>\nThe must-reads<\/strong><\/p>\nI\u2019ve combed the internet to find you today\u2019s most fun\/important\/scary\/fascinating stories about technology.<\/em><\/p>\n1 OpenAI says it cracked a 90-year-old maths problem in 88 hours<\/strong>
It used 10,000 AI agents to tackle the Navier-Stokes equations. (CNBC)
+ OpenAI claims it\u2019s the first major math problem solved by AI. <\/em>(Nature)
+ But the breakthrough has been overshadowed by a credit controversy.<\/em> (Axios)
+ OpenAI spent millions to win the $1 million math contest. <\/em>(Quanta)<\/p>\n2 The US has accused six Chinese AI firms of \u201cindustrial-scale\u201d theft
<\/strong>They include DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Alibaba, and Z.AI. (CNN)
+ Officials accuse them of stealing America\u2019s AI trade secrets. <\/em>(Reuters $)
+ They allegedly used model distillation to train their systems.<\/em> (WSJ $)
+ Targeting Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok, among others. <\/em>(NBC News)<\/p>\n3<\/strong> The Pentagon asked OpenAI for an AI model that rarely says no<\/strong>
The military wanted it to have \u201cminimal refusal rates.\u201d (Intercept)
+ The Pentagon says US allies can\u2019t keep pace on AI.<\/em> (Guardian)
+ AI firms may soon train on classified military data. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review)<\/p>\n4 Apple is expected to unveil a $2,000 folding smartphone today<\/strong>
It would be the iPhone\u2019s biggest design change since its 2007 launch. (Guardian)
+ And the first big test for new CEO John Ternus.<\/em> (NYT $)
+ Xiaomi and Huawei launched their own new foldables before the event.<\/em> (CNBC)<\/p>\n5 Meta\u2019s new AI agent can access apps to send emails and make payments<\/strong>
Muse autonomously uses apps and websites on people\u2019s behalf. (CNBC)
+ Internal tests found it could expose sensitive personal data. <\/em>(Reuters $)
+ AI agents are not your \u201ccoworkers.\u201d<\/em> (MIT Technology Review)<\/p>\n6 Google says it\u2019s \u201cdegrading\u201d search in Europe to comply with EU rules<\/strong>
New results will give more prominence to comparison sites. (Reuters $)
+ The changes follow a \u20ac460 million EU antitrust fine. <\/em>(Quartz)<\/p>\n7 Meta ads pushed AI apps that nudified real teens<\/strong>
Researchers found 332 ads containing CSAM this year. (BBC)
+ They identified several AI-manipulated photos of real children <\/em>(Ars Technica)
+ Apple and Google have missed the UK\u2019s deadline to block child nudity.<\/em> (Wired $)<\/p>\n8 Border Patrol is using financial data to target Americans for stops
<\/strong>The predictive-policing program feeds intelligence to local police. (404 Media)<\/p>\n9 New paints could cool buildings on the cheap without electricity
<\/strong>They reflect sunlight and radiate heat back into space. (Economist $)<\/p>\n10 The creepy first trailer for the Sam Altman biopic just dropped\u00a0<\/strong>
Luca Guadagnino\u2019s Artificial<\/em> will be released in the US on December 25. (Variety)
+ Amazon had dropped the film after investing in OpenAI. <\/em>(Guardian)<\/p>\nQuote of the day<\/strong><\/p>\n\u201c<\/strong>This is a Deep Blue\u2013Kasparov moment. The community needs to have serious and unhurried discussion about where to go from here.\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\u2014NYU mathematician Tristan Buckmaster issues a statement comparing OpenAI\u2019s math breakthrough to an IBM supercomputer defeating chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, a landmark moment for machine intelligence.<\/p>\n
One more thing<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp.technologyreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Hoeckele-deepfake-01-top.jpg?fit=2880,1920\")
<\/figure>\nThe shock of seeing your body used in deepfake porn<\/h4>\n
When Jennifer got a research job in 2023, she ran her new professional headshot through a facial recognition program. She wanted to see whether it would pull up the porn videos she\u2019d made more than a decade earlier. It did, but it also surfaced something she\u2019d never seen before: one of her old videos, now featuring someone else\u2019s face on her body.<\/p>\n
Conversations about sexualized deepfakes usually focus on the people whose faces are inserted into explicit content without consent. But another group often gets ignored: the people whose bodies those faces are attached to.<\/p>\n
Adult content creators say AI systems are training on their work, cloning their likenesses, and generating explicit content they never agreed to make, all with little legal protection or control. Read the full story on the threat to their rights, livelihoods, and ownership of their own bodies.<\/p>\n
\u2014Jessica Klein<\/em><\/p>\nWe can still have nice things<\/strong><\/p>\nA place for comfort, fun, and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? <\/em>Drop me a line<\/em>.)<\/em><\/p>\n+ Cherish the workers dodging (and sabotaging) their employer\u2019s AI mandates.
+ Artist Ali Hill stitches extraordinarily intricate buildings and cityscapes into fabric.
+ Here\u2019s a fascinating look at the remarkable anatomy that may let elephants hear the Earth itself.
+ Check out the breathtaking winning images from the 2026 International Aerial Photographer of the Year competition.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Batteries just broke another record in the US<\/strong><\/h3>\nBattery installations hit a new record in the US in the second quarter of 2026, with 20.2 gigawatt-hours of new capacity coming online. That\u2019s enough to supply the daily electricity needs of 600,000 homes.<\/p>\n
The surge puts the country on track for another record year, driven by cheaper batteries and an urgent need for more energy storage as renewables are added to the grid. But the boom looks different for grid-scale and residential batteries.<\/p>\n
Take a closer look at the forces reshaping the US battery market.<\/p>\n
\u2014Casey Crownhart<\/em><\/p>\nThis entrepreneur is developing agents that can plan ahead<\/strong><\/h3>\nDanijar Hafner\u2019s office in San Francisco\u2019s SoMa district sits mostly empty, but what it lacks in decor, it makes up for in robots. Humanoids of various shapes and sizes hang like marionettes from racks that run down the center of the wide-open space.<\/p>\n
Hafner won\u2019t say too much about his new venture just yet, but describes it as a continuation of his longtime work to enable AI to navigate environments it has not encountered in training.<\/p>\n
Over the years, the 31-year-old has honed his approach by pitting agents trained within his world models against popular video games. More recently, he\u2019s begun migrating his agents out of the virtual world and into physical reality.<\/p>\n
Learn more about Hafner\u2019s work teaching AI about our world.<\/p>\n
\u2014Mat Honan<\/em><\/p>\nDanijar Hafner is one of the artificial intelligence honorees on our 35 Innovators Under 35 list for 2026. Meet the <\/strong>rest of them here<\/strong>, or <\/strong>explore the full list<\/strong> across the biotechnology, AI, computing and robotics, and climate and energy categories.<\/strong><\/p>\nMIT Technology Review Narrated: data from drones in Ukraine is fueling a new Wild West marketplace<\/strong><\/h3>\nBattlefields in Ukraine are littered with the remnants of drones. But behind all that wreckage, there\u2019s a new gold mine for the defense sector: the data those drones generate.<\/p>\n
Ukraine has begun making millions of data points gathered during tens of thousands of drone flights available to military contractors and commercial companies. It\u2019s a quick way to attract funding and partnerships, but it turns the front line into a model training site, using the chaos of war to create conditions that AI companies struggle to reproduce.<\/p>\n
As this new industry takes shape, we need a regulatory system that ensures battlefield data isn\u2019t treated like ordinary commercial material.<\/p>\n
This is our latest <\/strong>article<\/strong> to become an MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish each week on <\/strong>Spotify<\/strong> and <\/strong>Apple Podcasts<\/strong>. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it\u2019s released.<\/strong><\/p>\nThe must-reads<\/strong><\/p>\nI\u2019ve combed the internet to find you today\u2019s most fun\/important\/scary\/fascinating stories about technology.<\/em><\/p>\n1 OpenAI says it cracked a 90-year-old maths problem in 88 hours<\/strong>
It used 10,000 AI agents to tackle the Navier-Stokes equations. (CNBC)
+ OpenAI claims it\u2019s the first major math problem solved by AI. <\/em>(Nature)
+ But the breakthrough has been overshadowed by a credit controversy.<\/em> (Axios)
+ OpenAI spent millions to win the $1 million math contest. <\/em>(Quanta)<\/p>\n2 The US has accused six Chinese AI firms of \u201cindustrial-scale\u201d theft
<\/strong>They include DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Alibaba, and Z.AI. (CNN)
+ Officials accuse them of stealing America\u2019s AI trade secrets. <\/em>(Reuters $)
+ They allegedly used model distillation to train their systems.<\/em> (WSJ $)
+ Targeting Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok, among others. <\/em>(NBC News)<\/p>\n3<\/strong> The Pentagon asked OpenAI for an AI model that rarely says no<\/strong>
The military wanted it to have \u201cminimal refusal rates.\u201d (Intercept)
+ The Pentagon says US allies can\u2019t keep pace on AI.<\/em> (Guardian)
+ AI firms may soon train on classified military data. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review)<\/p>\n4 Apple is expected to unveil a $2,000 folding smartphone today<\/strong>
It would be the iPhone\u2019s biggest design change since its 2007 launch. (Guardian)
+ And the first big test for new CEO John Ternus.<\/em> (NYT $)
+ Xiaomi and Huawei launched their own new foldables before the event.<\/em> (CNBC)<\/p>\n5 Meta\u2019s new AI agent can access apps to send emails and make payments<\/strong>
Muse autonomously uses apps and websites on people\u2019s behalf. (CNBC)
+ Internal tests found it could expose sensitive personal data. <\/em>(Reuters $)
+ AI agents are not your \u201ccoworkers.\u201d<\/em> (MIT Technology Review)<\/p>\n6 Google says it\u2019s \u201cdegrading\u201d search in Europe to comply with EU rules<\/strong>
New results will give more prominence to comparison sites. (Reuters $)
+ The changes follow a \u20ac460 million EU antitrust fine. <\/em>(Quartz)<\/p>\n7 Meta ads pushed AI apps that nudified real teens<\/strong>
Researchers found 332 ads containing CSAM this year. (BBC)
+ They identified several AI-manipulated photos of real children <\/em>(Ars Technica)
+ Apple and Google have missed the UK\u2019s deadline to block child nudity.<\/em> (Wired $)<\/p>\n8 Border Patrol is using financial data to target Americans for stops
<\/strong>The predictive-policing program feeds intelligence to local police. (404 Media)<\/p>\n9 New paints could cool buildings on the cheap without electricity
<\/strong>They reflect sunlight and radiate heat back into space. (Economist $)<\/p>\n10 The creepy first trailer for the Sam Altman biopic just dropped\u00a0<\/strong>
Luca Guadagnino\u2019s Artificial<\/em> will be released in the US on December 25. (Variety)
+ Amazon had dropped the film after investing in OpenAI. <\/em>(Guardian)<\/p>\nQuote of the day<\/strong><\/p>\n\u201c<\/strong>This is a Deep Blue\u2013Kasparov moment. The community needs to have serious and unhurried discussion about where to go from here.\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\u2014NYU mathematician Tristan Buckmaster issues a statement comparing OpenAI\u2019s math breakthrough to an IBM supercomputer defeating chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, a landmark moment for machine intelligence.<\/p>\n
One more thing<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nThe shock of seeing your body used in deepfake porn<\/h4>\n
When Jennifer got a research job in 2023, she ran her new professional headshot through a facial recognition program. She wanted to see whether it would pull up the porn videos she\u2019d made more than a decade earlier. It did, but it also surfaced something she\u2019d never seen before: one of her old videos, now featuring someone else\u2019s face on her body.<\/p>\n
Conversations about sexualized deepfakes usually focus on the people whose faces are inserted into explicit content without consent. But another group often gets ignored: the people whose bodies those faces are attached to.<\/p>\n
Adult content creators say AI systems are training on their work, cloning their likenesses, and generating explicit content they never agreed to make, all with little legal protection or control. Read the full story on the threat to their rights, livelihoods, and ownership of their own bodies.<\/p>\n
\u2014Jessica Klein<\/em><\/p>\nWe can still have nice things<\/strong><\/p>\nA place for comfort, fun, and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? <\/em>Drop me a line<\/em>.)<\/em><\/p>\n+ Cherish the workers dodging (and sabotaging) their employer\u2019s AI mandates.
+ Artist Ali Hill stitches extraordinarily intricate buildings and cityscapes into fabric.
+ Here\u2019s a fascinating look at the remarkable anatomy that may let elephants hear the Earth itself.
+ Check out the breathtaking winning images from the 2026 International Aerial Photographer of the Year competition.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
This entrepreneur is developing agents that can plan ahead<\/strong><\/h3>\nDanijar Hafner\u2019s office in San Francisco\u2019s SoMa district sits mostly empty, but what it lacks in decor, it makes up for in robots. Humanoids of various shapes and sizes hang like marionettes from racks that run down the center of the wide-open space.<\/p>\n
Hafner won\u2019t say too much about his new venture just yet, but describes it as a continuation of his longtime work to enable AI to navigate environments it has not encountered in training.<\/p>\n
Over the years, the 31-year-old has honed his approach by pitting agents trained within his world models against popular video games. More recently, he\u2019s begun migrating his agents out of the virtual world and into physical reality.<\/p>\n
Learn more about Hafner\u2019s work teaching AI about our world.<\/p>\n
\u2014Mat Honan<\/em><\/p>\nDanijar Hafner is one of the artificial intelligence honorees on our 35 Innovators Under 35 list for 2026. Meet the <\/strong>rest of them here<\/strong>, or <\/strong>explore the full list<\/strong> across the biotechnology, AI, computing and robotics, and climate and energy categories.<\/strong><\/p>\nMIT Technology Review Narrated: data from drones in Ukraine is fueling a new Wild West marketplace<\/strong><\/h3>\nBattlefields in Ukraine are littered with the remnants of drones. But behind all that wreckage, there\u2019s a new gold mine for the defense sector: the data those drones generate.<\/p>\n
Ukraine has begun making millions of data points gathered during tens of thousands of drone flights available to military contractors and commercial companies. It\u2019s a quick way to attract funding and partnerships, but it turns the front line into a model training site, using the chaos of war to create conditions that AI companies struggle to reproduce.<\/p>\n
As this new industry takes shape, we need a regulatory system that ensures battlefield data isn\u2019t treated like ordinary commercial material.<\/p>\n
This is our latest <\/strong>article<\/strong> to become an MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish each week on <\/strong>Spotify<\/strong> and <\/strong>Apple Podcasts<\/strong>. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it\u2019s released.<\/strong><\/p>\nThe must-reads<\/strong><\/p>\nI\u2019ve combed the internet to find you today\u2019s most fun\/important\/scary\/fascinating stories about technology.<\/em><\/p>\n1 OpenAI says it cracked a 90-year-old maths problem in 88 hours<\/strong>
It used 10,000 AI agents to tackle the Navier-Stokes equations. (CNBC)
+ OpenAI claims it\u2019s the first major math problem solved by AI. <\/em>(Nature)
+ But the breakthrough has been overshadowed by a credit controversy.<\/em> (Axios)
+ OpenAI spent millions to win the $1 million math contest. <\/em>(Quanta)<\/p>\n2 The US has accused six Chinese AI firms of \u201cindustrial-scale\u201d theft
<\/strong>They include DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Alibaba, and Z.AI. (CNN)
+ Officials accuse them of stealing America\u2019s AI trade secrets. <\/em>(Reuters $)
+ They allegedly used model distillation to train their systems.<\/em> (WSJ $)
+ Targeting Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok, among others. <\/em>(NBC News)<\/p>\n3<\/strong> The Pentagon asked OpenAI for an AI model that rarely says no<\/strong>
The military wanted it to have \u201cminimal refusal rates.\u201d (Intercept)
+ The Pentagon says US allies can\u2019t keep pace on AI.<\/em> (Guardian)
+ AI firms may soon train on classified military data. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review)<\/p>\n4 Apple is expected to unveil a $2,000 folding smartphone today<\/strong>
It would be the iPhone\u2019s biggest design change since its 2007 launch. (Guardian)
+ And the first big test for new CEO John Ternus.<\/em> (NYT $)
+ Xiaomi and Huawei launched their own new foldables before the event.<\/em> (CNBC)<\/p>\n5 Meta\u2019s new AI agent can access apps to send emails and make payments<\/strong>
Muse autonomously uses apps and websites on people\u2019s behalf. (CNBC)
+ Internal tests found it could expose sensitive personal data. <\/em>(Reuters $)
+ AI agents are not your \u201ccoworkers.\u201d<\/em> (MIT Technology Review)<\/p>\n6 Google says it\u2019s \u201cdegrading\u201d search in Europe to comply with EU rules<\/strong>
New results will give more prominence to comparison sites. (Reuters $)
+ The changes follow a \u20ac460 million EU antitrust fine. <\/em>(Quartz)<\/p>\n7 Meta ads pushed AI apps that nudified real teens<\/strong>
Researchers found 332 ads containing CSAM this year. (BBC)
+ They identified several AI-manipulated photos of real children <\/em>(Ars Technica)
+ Apple and Google have missed the UK\u2019s deadline to block child nudity.<\/em> (Wired $)<\/p>\n8 Border Patrol is using financial data to target Americans for stops
<\/strong>The predictive-policing program feeds intelligence to local police. (404 Media)<\/p>\n9 New paints could cool buildings on the cheap without electricity
<\/strong>They reflect sunlight and radiate heat back into space. (Economist $)<\/p>\n10 The creepy first trailer for the Sam Altman biopic just dropped\u00a0<\/strong>
Luca Guadagnino\u2019s Artificial<\/em> will be released in the US on December 25. (Variety)
+ Amazon had dropped the film after investing in OpenAI. <\/em>(Guardian)<\/p>\nQuote of the day<\/strong><\/p>\n\u201c<\/strong>This is a Deep Blue\u2013Kasparov moment. The community needs to have serious and unhurried discussion about where to go from here.\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\u2014NYU mathematician Tristan Buckmaster issues a statement comparing OpenAI\u2019s math breakthrough to an IBM supercomputer defeating chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, a landmark moment for machine intelligence.<\/p>\n
One more thing<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/figure>\nThe shock of seeing your body used in deepfake porn<\/h4>\n
When Jennifer got a research job in 2023, she ran her new professional headshot through a facial recognition program. She wanted to see whether it would pull up the porn videos she\u2019d made more than a decade earlier. It did, but it also surfaced something she\u2019d never seen before: one of her old videos, now featuring someone else\u2019s face on her body.<\/p>\n
Conversations about sexualized deepfakes usually focus on the people whose faces are inserted into explicit content without consent. But another group often gets ignored: the people whose bodies those faces are attached to.<\/p>\n
Adult content creators say AI systems are training on their work, cloning their likenesses, and generating explicit content they never agreed to make, all with little legal protection or control. Read the full story on the threat to their rights, livelihoods, and ownership of their own bodies.<\/p>\n
\u2014Jessica Klein<\/em><\/p>\nWe can still have nice things<\/strong><\/p>\nA place for comfort, fun, and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? <\/em>Drop me a line<\/em>.)<\/em><\/p>\n+ Cherish the workers dodging (and sabotaging) their employer\u2019s AI mandates.
+ Artist Ali Hill stitches extraordinarily intricate buildings and cityscapes into fabric.
+ Here\u2019s a fascinating look at the remarkable anatomy that may let elephants hear the Earth itself.
+ Check out the breathtaking winning images from the 2026 International Aerial Photographer of the Year competition.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Danijar Hafner is one of the artificial intelligence honorees on our 35 Innovators Under 35 list for 2026. Meet the <\/strong>rest of them here<\/strong>, or <\/strong>explore the full list<\/strong> across the biotechnology, AI, computing and robotics, and climate and energy categories.<\/strong><\/p>\n Battlefields in Ukraine are littered with the remnants of drones. But behind all that wreckage, there\u2019s a new gold mine for the defense sector: the data those drones generate.<\/p>\n Ukraine has begun making millions of data points gathered during tens of thousands of drone flights available to military contractors and commercial companies. It\u2019s a quick way to attract funding and partnerships, but it turns the front line into a model training site, using the chaos of war to create conditions that AI companies struggle to reproduce.<\/p>\n As this new industry takes shape, we need a regulatory system that ensures battlefield data isn\u2019t treated like ordinary commercial material.<\/p>\n The must-reads<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ve combed the internet to find you today\u2019s most fun\/important\/scary\/fascinating stories about technology.<\/em><\/p>\n 1 OpenAI says it cracked a 90-year-old maths problem in 88 hours<\/strong> 2 The US has accused six Chinese AI firms of \u201cindustrial-scale\u201d theft 3<\/strong> The Pentagon asked OpenAI for an AI model that rarely says no<\/strong> 4 Apple is expected to unveil a $2,000 folding smartphone today<\/strong> 5 Meta\u2019s new AI agent can access apps to send emails and make payments<\/strong> 6 Google says it\u2019s \u201cdegrading\u201d search in Europe to comply with EU rules<\/strong> 7 Meta ads pushed AI apps that nudified real teens<\/strong> 8 Border Patrol is using financial data to target Americans for stops 9 New paints could cool buildings on the cheap without electricity 10 The creepy first trailer for the Sam Altman biopic just dropped\u00a0<\/strong> Quote of the day<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014NYU mathematician Tristan Buckmaster issues a statement comparing OpenAI\u2019s math breakthrough to an IBM supercomputer defeating chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, a landmark moment for machine intelligence.<\/p>\n One more thing<\/strong><\/p>\n When Jennifer got a research job in 2023, she ran her new professional headshot through a facial recognition program. She wanted to see whether it would pull up the porn videos she\u2019d made more than a decade earlier. It did, but it also surfaced something she\u2019d never seen before: one of her old videos, now featuring someone else\u2019s face on her body.<\/p>\n Conversations about sexualized deepfakes usually focus on the people whose faces are inserted into explicit content without consent. But another group often gets ignored: the people whose bodies those faces are attached to.<\/p>\n Adult content creators say AI systems are training on their work, cloning their likenesses, and generating explicit content they never agreed to make, all with little legal protection or control. Read the full story on the threat to their rights, livelihoods, and ownership of their own bodies.<\/p>\n \u2014Jessica Klein<\/em><\/p>\n We can still have nice things<\/strong><\/p>\n A place for comfort, fun, and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? <\/em>Drop me a line<\/em>.)<\/em><\/p>\n + Cherish the workers dodging (and sabotaging) their employer\u2019s AI mandates.MIT Technology Review Narrated: data from drones in Ukraine is fueling a new Wild West marketplace<\/strong><\/h3>\n
This is our latest <\/strong>article<\/strong> to become an MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish each week on <\/strong>Spotify<\/strong> and <\/strong>Apple Podcasts<\/strong>. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it\u2019s released.<\/strong><\/p>\n
It used 10,000 AI agents to tackle the Navier-Stokes equations. (CNBC)
+ OpenAI claims it\u2019s the first major math problem solved by AI. <\/em>(Nature)
+ But the breakthrough has been overshadowed by a credit controversy.<\/em> (Axios)
+ OpenAI spent millions to win the $1 million math contest. <\/em>(Quanta)<\/p>\n
<\/strong>They include DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Alibaba, and Z.AI. (CNN)
+ Officials accuse them of stealing America\u2019s AI trade secrets. <\/em>(Reuters $)
+ They allegedly used model distillation to train their systems.<\/em> (WSJ $)
+ Targeting Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok, among others. <\/em>(NBC News)<\/p>\n
The military wanted it to have \u201cminimal refusal rates.\u201d (Intercept)
+ The Pentagon says US allies can\u2019t keep pace on AI.<\/em> (Guardian)
+ AI firms may soon train on classified military data. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review)<\/p>\n
It would be the iPhone\u2019s biggest design change since its 2007 launch. (Guardian)
+ And the first big test for new CEO John Ternus.<\/em> (NYT $)
+ Xiaomi and Huawei launched their own new foldables before the event.<\/em> (CNBC)<\/p>\n
Muse autonomously uses apps and websites on people\u2019s behalf. (CNBC)
+ Internal tests found it could expose sensitive personal data. <\/em>(Reuters $)
+ AI agents are not your \u201ccoworkers.\u201d<\/em> (MIT Technology Review)<\/p>\n
New results will give more prominence to comparison sites. (Reuters $)
+ The changes follow a \u20ac460 million EU antitrust fine. <\/em>(Quartz)<\/p>\n
Researchers found 332 ads containing CSAM this year. (BBC)
+ They identified several AI-manipulated photos of real children <\/em>(Ars Technica)
+ Apple and Google have missed the UK\u2019s deadline to block child nudity.<\/em> (Wired $)<\/p>\n
<\/strong>The predictive-policing program feeds intelligence to local police. (404 Media)<\/p>\n
<\/strong>They reflect sunlight and radiate heat back into space. (Economist $)<\/p>\n
Luca Guadagnino\u2019s Artificial<\/em> will be released in the US on December 25. (Variety)
+ Amazon had dropped the film after investing in OpenAI. <\/em>(Guardian)<\/p>\n\u201c<\/strong>This is a Deep Blue\u2013Kasparov moment. The community needs to have serious and unhurried discussion about where to go from here.\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/figure>\nThe shock of seeing your body used in deepfake porn<\/h4>\n
+ Artist Ali Hill stitches extraordinarily intricate buildings and cityscapes into fabric.
+ Here\u2019s a fascinating look at the remarkable anatomy that may let elephants hear the Earth itself.
+ Check out the breathtaking winning images from the 2026 International Aerial Photographer of the Year competition.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n