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 be you. To preserve that elusive continuity of self, some far-thinking technologists are exploring ways to keep the brain going, even beyond death. Their ideas range from freezing brains in liquid nitrogen to augmenting living ones and uploading our memories to the cloud. Here are six possible paths for keeping your mind going, and how feasible they might be . —Antonio Regalado
This story is from the Impossible edition of our print magazine. Subscribe now to get every issue as soon as it lands. MIT Technology Review Narrated: Open models have real benefits. Do they outweigh the risks? Anthropic recently released a report arguing that a powerful new model released by the Chinese company Z. ai, poses a major cyberattack risk. Its core concern was that it is freely available for anyone to download and modify. The warning was the latest flashpoint in the debate over open frontier AI models. Critics warn that bad actors can misuse them, while supporters argue they prevent a handful of companies from controlling the technology. The debate, however, is more complicated than it seems . This is our latest story to become an MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish 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 COP31’s flagship pledge to electrify 35% of energy use is sinking
Only around a dozen nations are reportedly ready to sign it. ( Politico )
+ It requires quadrupling the pace of electrification. ( New Scientist $)
+ John Kerry says the US must follow China on clean energy. ( Guardian )
+ But the US skipped the talks entirely for a second year. ( NYT $)
+ What’s the future of electricity? ( MIT Technology Review )
2 The Nvidia spy scandal reportedly involves $7. 5 billion of chips
Alice Huang allegedly obtained 240,000 restricted chips. ( Information $)
+ Trump was told of Huang’s spy link on Air Force One . ( NYT $)
+ Experts warn the scandal could erode America’s AI lead. ( Verge )
+ Nvidia’s slide has let Microsoft overtake it in value…
