That is as we speak’s version of The Obtain, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a every day dose of what’s occurring on this planet of know-how.
Meet the person searching the spies in your smartphone
In April 2025, Ronald Deibert left all digital units at dwelling in Toronto and boarded a airplane. When he landed in Illinois, he purchased a brand new laptop computer and iPhone. He needed to scale back the danger of getting his private units confiscated, as a result of he knew his work made him a first-rate goal for surveillance. “I’m touring underneath the idea that I’m being watched, proper down to precisely the place I’m at any second,” Deibert says.
Deibert directs the Citizen Lab, a analysis middle he based in 2001 to function “counterintelligence for civil society.” Housed on the College of Toronto, it’s one of many few establishments that examine cyberthreats completely within the public curiosity, and in doing so, it has uncovered among the most egregious digital abuses of the previous twenty years.
For a few years, Deibert and his colleagues have held up the US as the usual for liberal democracy. However that’s altering. Learn the complete story.
—Finian Hazen
This story is from the newest subject of our print journal. Should you subscribe now to obtain future copies after they land you’ll profit from some huge reductions, and get a free tote bag!
Three local weather applied sciences breaking via in 2026
—Casey Crownhart
Blissful New Yr! I do know it’s a bit late to say, but it surely by no means fairly feels just like the 12 months has began till the brand new version of our 10 Breakthrough Applied sciences listing comes out.
For 25 years, MIT Know-how Assessment has put collectively this bundle, which highlights the applied sciences that we expect are going to matter sooner or later. This 12 months’s model has a bunch of local weather and power picks together with sodium-ion batteries, next-generation nuclear, and hyperscale AI information facilities. Let’s check out what ended up on the listing, and what it says about this second for local weather tech.
This story ran in The Spark, our weekly e-newsletter all in regards to the applied sciences we are able to use to fight local weather change. Enroll to get it in your inbox first each Wednesday.
And, for those who’re eager to be taught extra about why AI firms are betting huge on next-gen nuclear, be part of us for an unique subscriber-only Roundtable occasion on Wednesday January 28 at 2pm ET.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to seek out you as we speak’s most enjoyable/essential/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.
1 AI firms are actually deeply entwined with the US navy
And it appears to be like like they’re solely set to get nearer. (Wired $)
+ Three open questions in regards to the Pentagon’s push for generative AI. (MIT Know-how Assessment)
2 Grok will adjust to native legal guidelines, X has mentioned
A world backlash over customers creating ‘undressing’ pictures of actual folks appears to have pressured its hand. (BBC)
+ To date there’s no proof it’s truly following via on that promise although. (The Verge)
+ Elon Musk may cease all of it immediately if he needed to. (Engadget)
3 The dangers of utilizing AI in faculties outweigh the advantages
In keeping with a sweeping new research by the Brookings Establishment’s Middle for Common Training. (NPR)
+ AI’s giants try to take over the classroom. (MIT Know-how Assessment)
4 Trump is imposing new tariffs on high-end chips
They’re fairly slender although, and go away loads of room for exports to China. (WP $)
+ Zhipu AI says it’s educated its first main mannequin solely on Chinese language chips. (South China Morning Publish)
5 A UK police power blamed Microsoft Copilot for an intelligence error
After spending weeks denying it was utilizing AI instruments in any respect. (Ars Technica)
+ Fearful about police and attorneys utilizing AI? Properly, judges are at it too. (MIT Know-how Assessment)
6 Contained in the compounds the place the fraud trade makes its billions
The main points are grim—for instance the very fact staff struck a gong each time they scammed somebody out of $5,000. (NYT $)
+ Inside a romance rip-off compound—and the way folks get tricked into being there. (MIT Know-how Assessment)
7 Bandcamp has banned purely AI-generated music from its platform
It’s the primary on-line music platform to take this step. (Billboard)
+ Can AI generate new concepts? (NYT $)
8 Keep in mind Havana Syndrome? The US could have discovered the machine that causes it
It was acquired for tens of millions of {dollars} underneath the final administration, and it’s nonetheless being studied. (CNN)
9 This research did not show social media time causes teenagers’ psychological well being points
It’s a standard assumption, however there’s nonetheless remarkably little proof to again it up. (The Guardian)
10 The UK is planning to construct a record-breaking variety of wind farms
Its authorities is pushing for the overwhelming majority of the nation’s electrical energy to return from clear sources by 2030. (BBC)
Quote of the day
“Girls and ladies are much more reluctant to make use of AI. This ought to be no shock to any of us. Girls don’t see this as thrilling new know-how, however as merely new methods to harass and abuse us and attempt to push us offline.”
—Clare McGlynn, a regulation professor at Durham College, tells The Guardian she fears that using AI to hurt ladies and ladies is simply going to develop.
Another factor
Contained in the little-known group setting the company local weather agenda
As hundreds of firms trumpet their plans to chop carbon air pollution, a small group of sustainability consultants has emerged because the go-to arbiter of company local weather motion.
The Science Based mostly Targets initiative, or SBTi, helps companies develop a timetable for motion to shrink their local weather footprint via some mixture of reducing greenhouse-gas air pollution and eradicating carbon dioxide from the environment. After years of small-scale sustainability work, SBTi is rising quickly, and governments are paying consideration.
However whereas the group has earned reward for reeling the personal sector into constructive conversations about local weather emissions, its rising affect has additionally attracted scrutiny and raised questions on why a single group is setting the requirements for most of the world’s largest firms. Learn the complete story.
—Ian Morse
We will nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction to brighten up your day. (Obtained any concepts? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ The leaders of Japan and South Korea drummed up a viral second with a jam session this week.
+ Wrestle in the course of the chilly, darkish winter months? Right here’s easy methods to make issues simpler for your self.
+ Should you like getting misplaced within the depths of Wikipedia, Freakpages is for you.
+ From Pluribus to Stranger Issues, we actually can’t get sufficient of hive mindsin tales currently. ($)
