Plus: Anthropic is now valued higher than OpenAI. How a new extraction process could unlock the world's lithium A new method for extracting lithium could cut costs and emissions from one of the world's most important materials for EVs and energy storage. The technique uses a weak acid to dissolve silicate minerals. That frees not only the lithium but also other useful materials, including alumina and silica. "At scale, we believe this will be the lowest-cost way of sourcing lithium in the world," says Yet-Ming Chiang, an MIT professor who co-authored a study of the process published yesterday in . Startup Rock Zero is already working to commercialize the research.

Plus: Illinois just passed what could become America's strongest AI safety law. Climate tech companies are going public. Solar and battery company Solv Energy went public in February, hitting a $6 billion valuation. X-energy, which builds small modular nuclear reactors, followed at $11.5 billion. Then came geothermal company Fervo Energy, reaching a market cap of about $12.4 billion. All three have been IPO success stories.

It is one thing to say AI will change the world. It is another to expect the class of 2026 to applaud it. In fact, when former Google CEO Eric Schmidt told University of Arizona graduates that their task is to help shape AI, he was met with a resounding chorus of boos. "I can hear you," he said, before conceding that fears about disappearing jobs and a broken future were "rational." This is not exactly the message one hopes to hear while sweating under a polyester gown and tallying student loan payments. Graduates have been jeering at AI pep talks at other commencements too, including ceremonies at the University of Central Florida and Middle Tennessee State University.

Plus: NASA unveiled plans for three uncrewed missions to the Moon this year. Here at we understand exactly how relentless the pace of news from the world of artificial intelligence feels New models and capabilities crop up as fast as we can cover them, and the ripple effects they send through tech and wider society are never far behind. Our unique strength lies in cutting through the day-to-day noise to help you understand what's really happening, and what lies around the corner. That's why we created our list of 10 Things That Matter in AI Right Now, unveiled at our flagship AI event EmTech AI a few weeks back ( check the list out if you haven't already!) And it's why we publish so many stories dedicated to explaining how AI works, and what's coming next . We also regularly run live subscriber-only Roundtables events--you can still catch up on last week's session, where we explored how AI might enter the physical realm via world models.

Plus: The Pope has called for governments to regulate AI. Despite the growing hysteria over AI's threat to white-collar jobs, there's still scant evidence that the technology has had a large-scale impact on the labor market. Analysis of US labor data shows that unemployment in occupations most exposed to AI is actually lower than in less-exposed jobs. There are also no signs that large numbers of workers are shifting from AI-threatened professions into supposedly safer manual-labor jobs. It's true that things aren't great in the job market--but the question is why. Here's what the data really says about AI and jobs .

Plus: Trump has postponed an AI order due to overregulation fears. Anthropic's Code with Claude showed off coding's future--whether you like it or not At Anthropic's developer event in London this week, Code with Claude, attendees were asked if they'd shipped code written entirely by Claude. Almost half the room raised their hands. Many admitted they hadn't even read the code before pushing it live. As tools like Claude Code get better, more and more developers are happy to hand their work off to AI. Anthropic says it wants to push automation as far as it will go. But not everyone is convinced that's the right approach.

The Download: online safety's future and climate tech's big pivot Plus: SpaceX has filed for an IPO expected to be the largest ever. For months, the Trump administration has been going after researchers who study and try to counter hate speech, harassment, propaganda, and disinformation online. Now, some of those researchers are fighting back. In a new lawsuit, they're seeking to strike down a visa restriction policy against "foreign officials and other persons" announced last year by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. They say the policy violates the speech and due process rights of foreign-born workers whose "work supports greater moderation of content on the [tech] platforms. Find out how the case could impact online safety and free speech .

Musk v. Altman week 3: Musk and Altman traded blows over each other's credibility. Now the jury will pick a side. In the final week of the Musk v. Altman trial, lawyers attacked the credibility of the two tech leaders. Sam Altman was accused of lying and self-dealing, while Elon Musk was portrayed as a power-seeker trying to control artificial general intelligence. The case unearthed new details about the two arch-rivals and OpenAI's contested nonprofit status, as well as a golden trophy of a donkey's ass awarded to an employee who challenged Musk. Michelle Kim, who's also a lawyer, has been in court throughout the Musk v. Altman trial.

Plus: as their trial goes to the jury, Musk and Altman face lying accusations. China's short drama industry is fueled by bite-sized, melodramatic, and smutty shows built for smartphone scrolling. Now, many are being made entirely with AI: no actors, camera operators, cinematographers, or CGI specialists required. An average of 470 AI-generated short dramas were released every day in January. Production timelines have shrunk from months to weeks, while costs have dropped by up to 90%. Storytelling is also increasingly driven by performance data.

The Download: deepfake porn's stolen bodies and AI sharing private numbers Plus: the US has approved Nvidia chip sales to 10 Chinese firms. 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'd made more than a decade earlier. It did, but it also surfaced something she'd never seen before: one of her old videos, now featuring someone else's face on her body. 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.