The Download: how the US is meeting China’s technological rise, and Trump’s tariff war intensifies
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 the Pentagon is adapting to China’s technological rise
It’s been just over two months since Kathleen Hicks stepped down as US deputy secretary of defense. As the highest-ranking woman in Pentagon history, Hicks shaped US military posture through an era defined by renewed competition between powerful countries and a scramble to modernize defense technology.
Over the past three decades, Hicks has watched the Pentagon transform—politically, strategically, and technologically. In this conversation with MIT Technology Review, Hicks reflects on how the Pentagon is adapting—or failing to adapt—to a new era of geopolitical competition. She discusses China’s technological rise, the future of AI in warfare, and her signature initiative, Replicator, a Pentagon initiative to rapidly field thousands of low-cost autonomous systems such as drones. Read the full story.
—Caiwen Chen
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Donald Trump’s trade war could trigger a global recession
Investors are sounding the alarm as markets struggle to react to his tariffs. (Economist $)
+ Unsurprisingly, the President has doubled down on his tariffs. (BBC)
+ It’s all part of his plan to “reset global trade.” (Politico)
+ Trump’s tariffs will deliver a big blow to climate tech. (MIT Technology Review)
2 The White House was just hours from announcing a TikTok deal
Until the Chinese government insisted on tariff negotiations first. (WP $)
+ The two countries now seem likely to descend into tit-for-tat restrictions. (WSJ $)
+ The President has extended the sale deadline by another 75 days. (NBC News)
3 DeepSeek is working on self-improving AI models
It’s working with Tsinghua University to reduce its models’ training needs. (Bloomberg $)
+ China is narrowing the AI dominance gap between it and the US. (Wired $)
+ How DeepSeek ripped up the AI playbook—and why everyone’s going to follow its lead. (MIT Technology Review)
4 X is flourishing under the Trump administration
Elon Musk appears to be positioning the platform as a new media outlet. (NYT $)
+ X is cracking down on parody accounts. (BBC)
5 A shingles vaccine could help lower the risk of developing dementia
We might have to overhaul the way we treat neurodegenerative diseases. (Vox)
+ It may help to treat them like viruses. (NYT $)
+ Dementia content gets billions of views on TikTok. Whose story does it tell? (MIT Technology Review)
6 San Francisco’s mayor is trying to convince tech leaders to come back
He may be willing to offer tax breaks as an incentive. (TechCrunch)
+ Some of his supporters aren’t in favor of his new upzoning plan. (SF Standard)
7 TikTok’s algorithm promotes live streams of begging children
While taking fees and commission of up to 70%. (The Guardian)
8 China’s EV makers are locked in intense competition
And consumers are spoilt for choice. (FT $)
+ Argentina has lifted tariffs on EVs. (Rest of World)
+ China’s EV giants are betting big on humanoid robots. (MIT Technology Review)
9 This version of video game Quake was created using AI
Microsoft has opened a demo up to Copilot users. (The Verge)
+ How generative AI could reinvent what it means to play. (MIT Technology Review)
10 Tracking celebrity heights is an internet obsession
Is anyone actually 5”11? (The Guardian)
Quote of the day
“We’d like to put this chapter behind us.”
—Sean Murphy, executive vice president of policy at trade group the Information Technology Industry Council, tells the Washington Post how the tech industry is desperate to see the tariffs that affect it reversed as quickly as possible.
The big story
The messy quest to replace drugs with electricity
In the early 2010s, electricity seemed poised for a hostile takeover of your doctor’s office. Research into how the nervous system—the highway that carries electrical messages between the brain and the body— controls the immune response was gaining traction.
And that had opened the door to the possibility of hacking into the body’s circuitry and thereby controlling a host of chronic diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, and diabetes, as if the immune system were as reprogrammable as a computer.
To do that you’d need a new class of implant: an “electroceutical.” These devices would replace drugs. No more messy side effects. And no more guessing whether a drug would work differently for you and someone else. In the 10 years or so since, around a billion dollars has accreted around the effort. But electroceuticals have still not taken off as hoped.
Now, however, a growing number of researchers are starting to look beyond the nervous system, and experimenting with clever ways to electrically manipulate cells elsewhere in the body, such as the skin.
Their work suggests that this approach could match the early promise of electroceuticals, yielding fast-healing bioelectric bandages, novel approaches to treating autoimmune disorders, new ways of repairing nerve damage, and even better treatments for cancer. Read the full story.
—Sally Adee
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ The internet is hating on the Beatles biopics before they’re even out—but why?
+ Do you know the last time all of humanity was on Earth?
+ The new Naked Gun film looks suitably unhinged.
+ Here’s some simple bits of advice to help make each day that little bit happier.
