The Download

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. AI is rewiring how the world’s best Go players think Ten years ago AlphaGo, Google DeepMind’s AI program, stunned the world by defeating the South Korean Go player Lee Sedol.And in the years […]

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. America was winning the race to find Martian life. Then China jumped in. In July 2024, NASA’s Perseverance rover came across a peculiar rocky outcrop on Mars covered in strange spots. On Earth,

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. Introducing: the Crime issue Technology has long made crime and its prosecution a game of cat and mouse. But those same new technologies that have allowed crime to outpace law have also reenergized

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. Why conservationists are making rhinos radioactive Every year, poachers shoot hundreds of rhinos, fishing crews haul millions of sharks out of protected seas, and smugglers carry countless animals and plants across borders. This

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. Inside Chicago’s surveillance panopticon Chicago has tens of thousands of surveillance cameras—up to 45,000, by some estimates.  That’s among the highest numbers per capita in the US. Chicago boasts one of the largest

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. Microsoft has a new plan to prove what’s real and what’s AI online AI-enabled deception now permeates our online lives. There are the high-profile cases you may easily spot. Other times, it slips

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 uncrewed narco subs could transform the Colombian drug trade 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

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. Welcome to the dark side of crypto’s permissionless dream Jean-Paul Thorbjornsen, an Australian man in his mid-30s, with a rural Catholic upbringing, is a founder of THORChain, a blockchain through which users can

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. The curious case of the disappearing Lamborghinis Across the world, unsuspecting people are unwittingly becoming caught up in a new and growing type of organized criminal enterprise: vehicle transport fraud and theft.Crooks use

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. Hackers made death threats against this security researcher. Big mistake. In April 2024, a mysterious someone using the online handles “Waifu” and “Judische” began posting death threats on Telegram and Discord channels aimed