The Download: how AI could improve construction site safety, and our Roundtables conversation with Karen Hao
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 generative AI could help make construction sites safer
More than 1,000 construction workers die on the job each year in the US, making it the most dangerous industry for fatal slips, trips, and falls.
A new AI tool called Safety AI could help to change that. It analyzes the progress made on a construction site each day, and flags conditions that violate Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules, with what its creator Philip Lorenzo claims is 95% accuracy.
Lorenzo says Safety AI is the first one of multiple emerging AI construction safety tools to use generative AI to flag safety violations. But as the 95% success rate suggests, Safety AI is not a flawless and all-knowing intelligence. Read the full story.
—Andrew Rosenblum
Roundtables: Inside OpenAI’s Empire with Karen Hao
Earlier this week, we held a subscriber-only Roundtable discussion with author and former MIT Technology Review senior editor Karen Hao about her new book Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI.
You can watch her conversation with our executive editor Niall Firth here—and if you aren’t already, you can subscribe to us here.
MIT Technology Review Narrated: The tech industry can’t agree on what open-source AI means. That’s a problem.
What counts as ‘open-source AI’? The answer could determine who gets to shape the future of the technology.
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 China’s digital IDs are coming
And they’re unlikely to stay voluntary for long. (Economist $)
+ The country’s AI models are becoming increasingly popular worldwide. (WSJ $)
2 Donald Trump has mused about using DOGE to deport Elon Musk
Musk’s comments about the President’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ have touched a nerve. (Axios)
+ Turns out AI models are quite good at fact checking Trump. (WP $)
+ DOGE’s tech takeover threatens the safety and stability of our critical data. (MIT Technology Review)
3 Google must pay California’s Android users $314.6m
After a jury ruled it had misused their data. (Reuters)
4 Many AI detectors overpromise and underdeliver
But that hasn’t stopped Californian colleges from investing millions in them. (Undark)
+ What’s next for college writing? Nothing good. (New Yorker $)
+ Educators are working out how to integrate AI into computer science. (NYT $)
+ AI-text detection tools are really easy to fool. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Google is making its first foray into fusion
The world’s first grid-scale fusion power plant is due to come online in the 2030s. (NBC News)
+ Google will buy half its output. (TechCrunch)
+ Inside a fusion energy facility. (MIT Technology Review)
6 China is banning certain portable batteries from flights
In the wake of two major manufacturers recalling millions of power banks. (NYT $)
+ The ban is catching travellers out. (SCMP)
7 The deepfake economy is spiralling out of control
Small business owners are drowning in online scams. (Insider $)
8 Chipmaking companies are attractive prospects for investors
And they’re likely to be better bets. (WSJ $)
+ OpenAI has denied that it plans to use Google’s in-house chip. (Reuters)
9 How cancer studies in dogs could help develop treatments for humans
The disease presents very similarly across both species. (Knowable Magazine)
+ Cancer vaccines are having a renaissance. (MIT Technology Review)
10 X is planning to task AI agents with writing Community Notes
Thankfully, humans will still review them. (Bloomberg $)
+ Why does AI hallucinate? (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“Missionaries will beat mercenaries.”
—OpenAI CEO Sam Altman takes aim at Meta’s recent spree of attempting to hire his staff, Wired reports.
One more thing
The world’s next big environmental problem could come from space
In September, a unique chase took place in the skies above Easter Island. From a rented jet, a team of researchers captured a satellite’s last moments as it fell out of space and blazed into ash across the sky, using cameras and scientific equipment. Their hope was to gather priceless insights into the physical and chemical processes that occur when satellites burn up as they fall to Earth at the end of their missions.
This kind of study is growing more urgent. The number of satellites in the sky is rapidly rising—with a tenfold increase forecast by the end of the decade. Letting these satellites burn up in the atmosphere at the end of their lives helps keep the quantity of space junk to a minimum. But doing so deposits satellite ash in the Earth’s atmosphere. This metallic ash could potentially alter the climate, and we don’t yet know how serious the problem is likely to be. Read the full story.
—Tereza Pultarova
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.)
+ The new Running Man film looks pretty good, even if it is without Arnold.
+ Maybe it’s just not worth trying to understand our dogs after all.
+ Cynthia Erivo, who knows a thing or two about belting out a tune, really loves The Thong Song, and who can blame her?
+ Show your face, colossal squid!