The Download: a Nobel winner on AI, and the case for fixing everything
Quick Answer
Nobel laureate Daron Acemoglu argues that AI will minimally boost US productivity and maintain the need for human labor, despite technological advancements.
Quick Take
Meanwhile, Stewart Brand's new book emphasizes the importance of maintenance as a radical act for civilization.
Key Points
- Acemoglu's paper predicts AI's limited impact on productivity and human labor necessity.
- Stewart Brand's book argues for the radical importance of maintenance in society.
- The first AI-built zero-day exploit was discovered, highlighting cybersecurity threats.
- OpenAI launched Daybreak to patch vulnerabilities before attackers exploit them.
- Texas sued Netflix for alleged data harvesting and fostering addiction in users.
📖 Reader Mode
~4 min readThis 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.
Three things in AI to watch, according to a Nobel-winning economist
A few months before he won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2024, Daron Acemoglu published a paper that earned him few fans in Silicon Valley. He argued that AI would give only a small boost to US productivity and would not eliminate the need for human work.
Two years later, Acemoglu’s measured take has not caught on. The technology has advanced quite a bit since his cautious predictions, but the data is still largely on his side.
MIT Technology Review spoke with him to understand if any of the latest developments have changed his thesis. Here are the three things Acemoglu is paying closest attention to in AI right now.
—James O'Donnell
This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things AI. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Monday.
The case for fixing everything
Stewart Brand, the counterculture icon and tech industry legend, considers maintenance a “civilizational” act. His new book argues that taking responsibility for maintaining something, whether a motorcycle, a monument, or the planet, can be radical.
Brand argues that maintainers haven’t gotten the laurels they deserve—and he’s right. Yet his vision of maintenance often feels solitary: profound, but more about personal fulfillment than tending to a shared world or making it better.
Read the full review of his handsome new book, Maintenance: Of Everything, Part One.
—Lee Vinsel
Lee Vinsel is an associate professor of science, technology, and society at Virginia Tech, a cofounder of The Maintainers, and the host of Peoples & Things, a podcast about human life with technology.
This story is from the latest edition of our print magazine, which is all about nature. Subscribe now to read the full issue and receive future print copies once they land.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 The first zero-day exploit built by AI has been discovered
Google spotted and stopped the attempted “mass exploitation event.” (CNBC)
+ The hackers used AI to discover an unknown bug. (NYT $)
+ AI-powered hacking has exploded into an industrial-scale threat. (Guardian)
+ New tools are simplifying online crime. (MIT Technology Review)
2 OpenAI just launched its answer to Claude Mythos
Daybreak patches vulnerabilities before attackers find them. (The Verge)
+ Sam Altman said it will “continuously secure software.” (Gizmodo)
+ It will rival Anthropic’s Claude Mythos, which arrived a month ago. (BBC)
+ OpenAI is allowing wider access to its cyber models than Anthropic. (CNBC)
3 Trump is heading to China to spread the gospel of American tech
While taking cues from Beijing’s more stringent approach. (Guardian)
+ But investors want Trump and Xi to stay out of AI's way. (Reuters $)
+ Elon Musk and Tim Cook are joining him on the trip this week. (BBC)
4 Ilya Sutskever has testified on Sam Altman's "pattern of lying"
OpenAI co-founder Sutskever took the stand in the Altman v. Musk trial. (BI)
+ He said he spent a year gathering proof of Altman’s dishonesty. (Reuters $)
+ But he also added to OpenAI’s defense. (Wired $)
+ While Satya Nadella called attempts to remove Altman “amateur city.” (FT $)
+ Here’s what happened last week in the trial. (MIT Technology Review)
5 A new hantavirus vaccine is in the works
Moderna and Korea University are developing an mRNA vaccine. (Wired $)
+ Here’s what you need to know about the cruise ship outbreak. (MIT Technology Review)
6 Texas has sued Netflix over alleged data harvesting and "addictive" design
AG Ken Paxton accuses Netflix of secretly collecting and selling user data. (Quartz)
+ And spying on children while deliberately fostering addiction. (Guardian)
7 A data center guzzled 30 million gallons of water—and no one noticed
The curious case serves as a warning for other data center projects. (Ars Technica)
8 Europe is reportedly selling spyware to human rights abusers
EU states allegedly sold the tech to countries violating rights. (Bloomberg $)
9 The US government’s AI vetting announcement has mysteriously vanished
It had detailed a security test agreement with Google, xAI, and Microsoft. (Gizmodo)
10 Amazon staff are using AI for pointless tasks just to inflate usage scores
In a bid to impress managers. (FT $)
+ An AI expert says we should stop using AI so much. (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“This is like the cheating husband complaining about the cheating wife.”
—Anupam Chander, a professor of law and technology at Georgetown Law School, tells the New York Times that Elon Musk’s hypocrisy over OpenAI becoming a for-profit company will undermine his courtroom battle with Sam Altman.
One More Thing
STUART BRADFORD
How sounds can turn us on to the wonders of the universe
For decades, astronomy has relied on visual information to make sense of the cosmos: images, charts, and graphs. Now, some researchers are trying something different: listening to the universe.
—Corey S. Powell
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.)
+ This musical mashup beautifully blends LCD Soundsystem with Twin Peaks.
+ Match your speculative ideas to sci-fi stories with the Extrapolated Futures Archive.
+ A live-action animation Coyote vs. ACME is coming soon—and the first trailer just dropped.
+ Want to surf elsewhere in the galaxy? Here’s what it would be like to catch waves on distant planets.
— Originally published at technologyreview.com
Want this in your inbox every morning?
Daily brief at your local 8am — bilingual EN/中文, free.
More from MIT Technology Review
See more →
The Download: OpenAI unveils GPT-Red and heat pumps rise in the US
OpenAI's new GPT-Red automates red-teaming safety evaluations for software, enhancing security against human attackers. Meanwhile, heat pump sales in the US have doubled over 15 years, outperforming natural gas furnaces by 32% in early 2026, despite the expiration of a key tax credit.
