This is today’s edition of The Download, a weekday newsletter that brings you a daily dose of what’s happening in the world of technology.
Google’s new Project Astra could be the killer app for generative AI
Google DeepMind has unveiled an impressive bag of new products and prototypes that could take back the lead in the race to turn generative artificial intelligence into a mass-market concern.
The highest fees will be charged for Gemini 2.0 (the latest version of Google DeepMind’s family of multimodal large-scale language models, redesigned around the ability to control agents) and the company’s Google I/O This is a new version of Project Astra, the experimental all-in-all app we published on. In May.
The margins between top-end models such as Gemini 2.0 and models from competing institutes such as OpenAI and Anthropic are now slim. Recent advances in large-scale language models are less about how good they are and more about what you can do with them. That’s where an agent comes in.
MIT Technology Review got to try out Astra in a private live demo last week. It gave us a hint of what’s to come. Read the full article for more information.
—Will Douglas Haven
China has banned the export of some rare minerals to the United States. Things could get even trickier.
—Casey Crownhart
This past week I’ve been thinking about gallium and germanium more than ever (and perhaps more than ever).
Last week, China banned exports of these substances to the United States and placed restrictions on others. The move is just the latest drama to escalate trade tensions between the two countries.
The new export ban could have significant economic consequences, but it may be just the beginning. China is a powerhouse not only in these niche materials, but also in the supply chain of clean energy, especially batteries. What happens next could therefore have significant implications for EVs and broader climate action. Please read the full text.
This article is from The Spark, a weekly climate and energy newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.
Must-read content
We scoured the internet to find the most entertaining/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology today.
1 It seems very likely that 2024 will be the hottest year on record.
But average temperature is only one way to assess global warming. (New Scientist $)
+ The first months of 2025 are also likely to be hotter than usual. (Reuters)
+ The United States is making a major shift in climate policy. (MIT Technology Review)
2 Mehta donates $1 million to President Trump’s inaugural fund
To strengthen previously rocky relationships. (WSJ$)
+ Mark Zuckerberg isn’t the only technologist seeking input from the next president. (Insider $)
3 How is China secretly repatriating Uighurs?
Even the United Nations seems powerless to stop it. (WP$)
+ Uighurs outside China are traumatized. Now they’re starting to talk about it. (MIT Technology Review)
4 How Big Tech Decide When to Scrub Users’ Digital Footprints
Murder suspect Luigi Mangione’s Instagram has been deleted, but his Goodreads hasn’t. (New York Times dollars)
+ Why it’s dangerous to treat public online accounts as the whole story. (New York Mug$)
Five Russian-backed hackers use criminal tools to target Ukrainian military
This makes it even more difficult to find out who did it. (Tech Crunch)
6 What Cruise’s withdrawal means for the rest of the robotaxi industry
Automakers are growing frustrated as they wait for the technology to mature. (The Verge)
+Cruise will instead focus on developing fully autonomous personal vehicles. (New York Times dollars)
7 Researching dangerous pathogens is extremely risky
Because of the potential for abuse, some researchers are concerned that it shouldn’t be done at all. (Andark Magazine)
+ Introducing the scientists at the center of the coronavirus lab leak controversy. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Alternating current magnetism could be the next big thing in computing
It will lead to faster and more reliable electronic devices. (FT$)
9 Why do some people sleep so little?
Genetic mutations appear to hold at least part of the answer. (Magazines I know)
+ Babies spend most of their time sleeping. New technology is beginning to reveal why. (MIT Technology Review)
10 Inside the Creeping Normalization of AI Movies
The world’s largest television maker wants to make movies for people who can’t be bothered to change channels. (404 media)
+ Naturally, targeted ads will also be pushed. (Ars Technica)
+ How AI-generated video is changing movies. (MIT Technology Review)
quote of the day
“They made him a martyr because of all the trouble people have had with their insurance companies.”
– Felipe Rodriguez, an adjunct professor at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, explained to Reuters online why murder suspect Luigi Mangione is being touted online.
big story
Why AI can eat quantum computing’s lunch
November 2024
Tech companies have poured billions of dollars into quantum computers over the years. These are expected to bring about changes in diverse fields such as finance, drug discovery, and logistics.
But while the field struggles with the realities of unwieldy quantum hardware, another challenger is making progress in some of these most promising use cases. AI is currently being applied to fundamental physics, chemistry, and materials science, suggesting that the supposed home of quantum computing may not be so secure after all. Please read the full text.
—Ed Gent
we still have good things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten your day. (Have any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet me.)
+ Are you depressed at work? Seeing these photos of bygone office malaise makes me feel so much better (or worse. Thanks, Will!).
+ Gen Z seems to be passionate about documenting their lives with digital cameras. 
+ If you believe Alan McMasters invented the first electric bread toaster, I’m afraid you’ve been fooled by an elaborate online hoax.
+ An example of a better Turing test for AI-generated art.