The Download: selling via AI, and Congress testing tech

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.

Your most important customer may be AI

Imagine you run a meal prep company that teaches people how to make simple and delicious food. When someone asks ChatGPT for a recommendation for meal prep companies, yours is described as complicated and confusing. Why? Because the AI saw that in one of your ads there were chopped chives on the top of a bowl of food, and it determined that nobody is going to want to spend time chopping up chives.

It may seem odd for companies or brands to be mindful of what an AI “thinks” in this way but it’s already becoming relevant as consumers increasingly use AI to make purchase recommendations.

The end results may be a supercharged version of search engine optimization (SEO) where making sure that you’re positively perceived by a large language model might become one of the most important things a brand can do. Read the full story. 

—Scott J Mulligan

Congress used to evaluate emerging technologies. Let’s do it again.

The US Office of Technology Assessment, an independent office created by Congress in the early 1970s, produced some 750 reports during its 23-year history, assessing technologies as varied as electronic surveillance, genetic engineering, hazardous-waste disposal, and remote sensing from outer space.

The office functioned like a debunking arm. It sussed out the snake oil. Lifted the lid on the Mechanical Turk. The reports saw through the alluring gleam of overhyped technologies. 

In the years since its unceremonious defunding in 1995, perennial calls have gone out: Rouse the office from the dead! But, with advances in robotics, big data, and AI systems, these calls have taken on a new level of urgency. Read the full story. 

—Peter Andrey Smith

This story is from the next edition of our print magazine, which is all about relationships. Subscribe now to read it and get a copy when it lands on February 26!

How generative AI is changing online search

Generative AI search, one of MIT Technology Review’s 10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2025, is ushering a new era of the internet. Despite fewer clicks, copyright fights, and sometimes iffy answers, AI could unlock new ways to summon all the world’s knowledge. Our editor in chief Mat Honan and executive editor Niall Firth explored how AI will alter search in a live half-hour Roundtables session yesterday. Watch our recording of their conversation.

MIT Technology Review Narrated: The weeds are winning

As the climate changes, genetic engineering will be essential for growing food. But is it creating a race of superweeds? This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we’re publishing each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it’s released. 

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 Electricity demand is set to soar globally
On current trends, we’ll add the equivalent of Japan’s entire consumption each year between now and 2027. (The Verge)
+ China is planning to boost its energy storage sector to cope with a surge in demand. (South China Morning Post $)
+ Why artificial intelligence and clean energy need each other. (MIT Technology Review) 

2 How Israel uses US-made AI to wage war
Its use of OpenAI and Microsoft skyrocketed after October 7 2023. (AP)
+ OpenAI’s new defense contract completes its military pivot. (MIT Technology Review) 
+ How the drone battles of Ukraine are shaping the future of war. (New Scientist $)

3 Google’s AI efforts are being marred by turf wars 
It has a lot of people working on AI, and they’re not all pulling in the same direction. (The Information $)

4 OpenAI’s ex-CTO has launched a rival lab
Thinking Machines will focus on how humans and AI can work together better. (Axios)

5 Humane’s AI Pin is dead 
HP is buying most of its assets for $116 million, which is quite the climbdown from being valued at nearly $1 billion. (TechCrunch) 

6 Tech IPOs keep getting delayed
Everyone’s waiting for more certainty and stability. But there’s no sign of it arriving. (NYT $)

7 Scientists in the US feel under siege
Sweeping layoffs, funding freezes and executive orders are really starting to bite. (NBC)
+ It’s likely only the start of a long battle over how research can and will be done in the United States. (The Atlantic $)

8 China may use Tesla as a pawn in US trade negotiations
That gives it quite a lot of leverage to use, if it wishes. (Gizmodo)

9 Researchers have linked a gene to the emergence of spoken language
This is cool, and could even one day potentially help people with speech problems. (ABC)

10 The chances of an asteroid hitting us in 2032 just went up
Better try to really savor the next seven years, just in case. (New Scientist $)

Quote of the day

“Well, he’s wrong.”

—A fired Federal Aviation Administration employee responds to Elon Musk’s claim that no one who works on safety was laid off in a recent round of job cuts, Rolling Stone reports. 

The big story

A brief, weird history of brainwashing

April 2024

On a spring day in 1959, war correspondent Edward Hunter testified before a US Senate subcommittee investigating “the effect of Red China Communes on the United States.”

Hunter discussed a new concept to the American public: a supposedly scientific system for changing people’s minds, even making them love things they once hated.

Much of it was baseless, but Hunter’s sensational tales still became an important part of the disinformation and pseudoscience that fueled a “mind-control race” during the Cold War. US officials prepared themselves for a psychic war with the Soviet Union and China by spending millions of dollars on research into manipulating the human brain.

But while the science never exactly panned out, residual beliefs fostered by this bizarre conflict continue to play a role in ideological and scientific debates to this day. Read the full story.

—Annalee Newitz

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.)

+ I guess this must be the gator equivalent of a body scrub in a spa. 
+ You really can make anything with Lego bricks.
+ The secret to sticking to any exercise routine? You have to enjoy it! 
+ There are few things more comforting than recipes that combine cheese and pasta.