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The Download: autonomous narco submarines, and virtue signaling chatbots
For decades, handmade narco subs have been some of the cocaine trade's most elusive and productive workhorses, ferrying multi-ton loads of illicit drugs from Colombian estuaries toward markets in North America and, increasingly, the rest of the world. Now off-the-shelf technology--Starlink terminals, plug-and-play nautical autopilots, high-resolution video cameras--may be advancing that cat-and-mouse game into a new phase. Uncrewed subs could move more cocaine over longer distances, and they wouldn't put human smugglers at risk of capture. And law enforcement around the world is just beginning to grapple with what this means for the future. This story is from the next print issue of magazine, which is all about crime. Google DeepMind is calling for the moral behavior of large language models--such as what they do when called on to act as companions, therapists, medical advisors, and so on--to be scrutinized with the same kind of rigor as their ability to code or do math.
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Bill Gates a no-show at India AI summit, event marred by organizational chaos
U.S. philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates attends an event in New Delhi on March 19, 2025. NEW DELHI - Bill Gates pulled out of India's AI Impact Summit hours before his scheduled keynote address on Thursday, dealing another blow to a flagship event already marred by organizational lapses, a robot bungle and delegate complaints over traffic disruptions. The Gates Foundation said the billionaire would not deliver his address to ensure the focus remains on the AI Summit's key priorities. Only days ago, the foundation had dismissed rumors of his absence and insisted he was on track to attend. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.
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Tesla CarPlay is coming but it's reportedly being held back by low iOS 26 adoption numbers
Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2026 is Feb. 25 Valve's Steam Machine: Everything we know Tesla CarPlay is coming but it's reportedly being held back by low iOS 26 adoption numbers According to a Bloomberg report, there are some compatibility issues to work out between Apple Maps and Tesla's in-car navigation. We're still waiting for Apple CarPlay compatibility for Tesla EVs, but it's been pushed back thanks to a slight hitch with iOS 26, according to's Mark Gurman. In the latest Power On newsletter, Gurman said that Tesla's plans to adopt CarPlay have been delayed due to app compatibility issues as well as low adoption rates for iOS 26 . It's been a long wait for Tesla drivers who want CarPlay compatibility, especially since initial rumors indicated a late 2025 rollout and reported that Tesla was testing CarPlay in its vehicles in November. However, Gurman's latest newsletter revealed that there were some compatibility issues between Apple Maps and Tesla's in-house navigation software, which also supports the self-driving features.
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With eye on China, Koizumi stresses importance of rules-based order
Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi speaks at the Munich Security Conference in Munich on Friday. Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi reiterated the importance of the rules-based global order during a speech at the Munich Security Conference while linking the security of the Indo-Pacific to the Euro-Atlantic, as Japan keeps a nervous eye on Chinese military moves in Asia. "The very foundations that have underpinned the international order are being tested by real world actions," Koizumi said Friday "Attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by force must never be tolerated. That is why Japan does not view Ukraine as a distant European problem." Following the eruption of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, Japan began drawing a link between the two regions, with leaders repeatedly stressing that "Ukraine today could be East Asia tomorrow" -- a not-so-oblique hint at the possibility of a similar regional conflict in the Indo-Pacific, especially one involving China attacking democratic Taiwan.
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The Download: AI-enhanced cybercrime, and secure AI assistants
Plus: Instagram's CEO Adam Mosseri has denied claims that social media is "clinically addictive" AI is already making online crimes easier. It could get much worse. Just as software engineers are using artificial intelligence to help write code and check for bugs, hackers are using these tools to reduce the time and effort required to orchestrate an attack, lowering the barriers for less experienced attackers to try something out. Some in Silicon Valley warn that AI is on the brink of being able to carry out fully automated attacks. But most security researchers instead argue that we should be paying closer attention to the much more immediate risks posed by AI, which is already speeding up and increasing the volume of scams. Criminals are increasingly exploiting the latest deepfake technologies to impersonate people and swindle victims out of vast sums of money.
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Sam Altman's Orb Was Built for the Bot Era. So Why Isn't It Everywhere?
Sam Altman's Orb Was Built for the Bot Era. Welcome back to, TIME's twice-weekly newsletter about AI. If you're reading this in your browser, why not subscribe to have the next one delivered straight to your inbox? What to Know: Is Sam Altman's Orb missing its moment? When Moltbook, a social network for AI agents, went viral earlier this month, it should have been a vindication moment for Tools for Humanity -- the startup co-founded by Sam Altman, whose eyeball-scanning "Orb" was designed to solve exactly this kind of problem. Instead, it may have exposed the product's limitations.
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The Download: Making AI Work, and why the Moltbook hype is similar to Pokémon
Are you interested in learning more about the ways in which AI is being used? We've launched a new weekly newsletter series exploring just that: digging into how generative AI is being used and deployed across sectors and what professionals need to know to apply it in their everyday work. Each edition of Making AI Work begins with a case study, examining a specific use case of AI in a given industry. Then we'll take a deeper look at the AI tool being used, with more context about how other companies or sectors are employing that same tool or system. Finally, we'll end with action-oriented tips to help you apply the tool. The first edition takes a look at how AI is changing health care, digging into the future of medical note-taking by learning about the Microsoft Copilot tool used by doctors at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
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The Download: what Moltbook tells us about AI hype, and the rise and rise of AI therapy
For a few days recently, the hottest new hangout on the internet was a vibe-coded Reddit clone called Moltbook, which billed itself as a social network for bots. As the website's tagline puts it: "Where AI agents share, discuss, and upvote. Launched on January 28, Moltbook went viral in a matter of hours. It's been designed as a place where instances of a free open-source LLM-powered agent known as OpenClaw (formerly known as ClawdBot, then Moltbot), could come together and do whatever they wanted. But is Moltbook really a glimpse of the future, as many have claimed? More than a billion people worldwide suffer from a mental-health condition, according to the World Health Organization. The prevalence of anxiety and depression is growing in many demographics, particularly young people, and suicide is claiming hundreds of thousands of lives globally each year. Given the clear demand for accessible and affordable mental-health services, it's no wonder that people have looked to artificial intelligence for possible relief. Millions are already actively seeking therapy from popular chatbots, or from specialized psychology apps like Wysa and Woebot. Four timely new books are a reminder that while the present feels like a blur of breakthroughs, scandals, and confusion, this disorienting time is rooted in deeper histories of care, technology, and trust. Making AI Work, MIT Technology Review's new AI newsletter, is here For years, our newsroom has explored AI's limitations and potential dangers, as well as its growing energy needs . And our reporters have looked closely at how generative tools are being used for tasks such as coding and running scientific experiments . But how is AI being used in fields like health care, climate tech, education, and finance? How are small businesses using it? And what should you keep in mind if you use AI tools at work? These questions guided the creation of Making AI Work, a new AI mini-course newsletter. Read more about it, and sign up here to receive the seven editions straight to your inbox. The number of civil lawsuits it's pursuing has sharply dropped in comparison to Trump's first term. It's the latest example of Brussels' attempts to rein in Big Tech. Local governments and banks are only too happy to oblige promising startups. Cryptocurrency is now fully part of the financial system, for better or worse. "Agentic engineering" is the next big thing, apparently. Runners had long suspected its suggestions were pushing them towards injury. Only around three dozen supporters turned up. Its menswear suggestions are more manosphere influencer than suave gentleman. "There is no Plan B, because that assumes you will fail.
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Making AI Work, MIT Technology Review's new AI newsletter, is here
Making AI Work, MIT Technology Review's new AI newsletter, is here Learn how to apply LLMs across industries in 7 weekly editions of our new free newsletter. For years, our newsroom has explored AI's limitations and potential dangers, as well as its growing energy needs . And our reporters have looked closely at how generative tools are being used for tasks such as coding and running scientific experiments . But how is AI being used in fields like health care, climate tech, education, and finance? How are small businesses using it? And what should you keep in mind if you use AI tools at work?
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The Download: attempting to track AI, and the next generation of nuclear power
Plus: Anthropic's new tools are freaking out the markets Every time OpenAI, Google, or Anthropic drops a new frontier large language model, the AI community holds its breath. It doesn't exhale until METR, an AI research nonprofit whose name stands for "Model Evaluation & Threat Research," updates a now-iconic graph that has played a major role in the AI discourse since it was first released in March of last year. The graph suggests that certain AI capabilities are developing at an exponential rate, and more recent model releases have outperformed that already impressive trend. That was certainly the case for Claude Opus 4.5, the latest version of Anthropic's most powerful model, which was released in late November. In December, METR announced that Opus 4.5 appeared to be capable of independently completing a task that would have taken a human about five hours--a vast improvement over what even the exponential trend would have predicted. But the truth is more complicated than those dramatic responses would suggest.
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