That is at present’s version of The Obtain, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a day by day dose of what’s happening on the earth of expertise.
The person who made India digital isn’t finished but
Nandan Nilekani can’t cease making an attempt to push India into the long run. He began practically 30 years in the past, masterminding an ongoing experiment in technological state capability that began with Aadhaar—the world’s largest digital identification system.
Utilizing Aadhaar because the bedrock, Nilekani and folks working with him went on to construct a sprawling assortment of free, interoperating on-line instruments that add as much as nothing lower than a digital infrastructure for society, masking authorities companies, banking, and well being care. They provide comfort and entry that might be eye-popping in rich nations a tenth of India’s measurement.
At 70 years previous, Nilekani ought to be retired. However he has a number of extra concepts. Learn our profile to find out about what he’s set his sights on subsequent.
—Edd Gent
Embryo scoring is slowly changing into extra mainstream
Many Individuals agree that it’s acceptable to display screen embryos for extreme genetic illnesses. Far fewer say it’s okay to check for traits associated to a future youngster’s look, conduct, or intelligence. However a number of startups at the moment are promoting what they declare is a option to just do that.
This new sort of testing—which might value as much as $50,000—is extremely controversial. However, the follow has grown in style in Silicon Valley, and it’s changing into extra broadly out there to everybody. Learn the total story.
—Julia Black
Embryo scoring is one in every of our 10 Breakthrough Applied sciences this 12 months. Take a look at what else made the listing, and scroll right down to vote for the expertise you assume deserves the eleventh slot.
5 AI predictions for 2026
What is going to shock us most about AI in 2026?
Tune in at 12.30pm at present to listen to me, our senior AI editor Will Douglas Heaven and senior AI reporter James O’Donnell talk about our “5 AI Predictions for 2026”. This particular LinkedIn Dwell occasion will discover the developments which are poised to rework the following twelve months of AI. The dialog will even supply a primary glimpse at EmTech AI 2026, MIT Know-how Evaluate’s longest working AI occasion for enterprise management. Signal as much as be a part of us later at present!
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to seek out you at present’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.
1 Europe is making an attempt to construct its personal DeepSeek
That’s been a objective for some time, however US hostility is making these efforts newly pressing. (Wired $)
+ Loads of Europeans need to wean off US expertise. That’s simpler stated than finished. (New Scientist $)
+ DeepSeek could have discovered a brand new approach to enhance AI’s means to recollect. (MIT Know-how Evaluate $)
2 Ship-tracking information reveals China is creating huge floating boundaries
The maneuvers present that Beijing can now quickly muster massive numbers of the boats in disputed seas. (NYT $)
+ Quantum navigation might resolve the navy’s GPS jamming downside. (MIT Know-how Evaluate)
3 The AI bubble dangers disrupting the worldwide economic system, says the IMF
Nevertheless it’s onerous to see anybody pumping the brakes any time quickly. (FT $)
+ British politicians say the UK is being uncovered to ‘critical hurt’ by AI dangers. (The Guardian)
+ What even is the AI bubble? (MIT Know-how Evaluate)
4 Cryptocurrencies are dying in file numbers
In an period of one-off joke cash and pump and dump scams, that’s absolutely factor. (Gizmodo)
+ President Trump has pardoned lots of people who’ve dedicated monetary crimes. (NBC)
5 Threads has extra international day by day cell customers than X now
And once-popular various Bluesky barely even makes the charts. (Forbes)
6 The UK is contemplating banning beneath 16s from social media
Simply weeks after an identical ban took impact in Australia. (BBC)
7 You may burn your self out with AI coding brokers
They might be set to make skilled programmers busier than ever earlier than. (Ars Technica)
+ Why Anthropic’s Claude Code is taking the AI world by storm. (WSJ $)
+ AI coding is now in every single place. However not everyone seems to be satisfied. (MIT Know-how Evaluate)
8 Some tech billionaires are leaving California 
Not all although—the founders of Nvidia and Airbnb say they’ll keep and pay the 5% wealth tax. (WP $)
+ Tech bosses’ help for Trump is paying off for them massive time. (FT $)
9 Matt Damon says Netflix tells administrators to repeat film plots
To accommodate all of the individuals utilizing their telephones. (NME)
10 Why extra persons are going analog in 2026 
Crafting, studying, and different screen-free hobbies are on the rise. (CNN)
+ Dumbphones have gotten in style too—however it’s price considering onerous earlier than you turn. (Wired $)
Quote of the day
‘It might sound like American chauvinism…and it’s. We’re finished apologising about that.”
—Thomas Dans, a Trump appointee who heads the US Arctic Analysis Fee, tells the FT his boss is lethal critical about buying Greenland.
Yet another factor
Contained in the fierce, messy struggle over “wholesome” sugar tech
On the outskirts of Charlottesville, Virginia, a brand new sort of sugar manufacturing unit is taking form. The ability is being developed by a startup referred to as Bonumose. It makes use of a processed corn product referred to as maltodextrin that’s discovered in lots of junk meals and is calorically much like desk sugar (sucrose).
However for Bonumose, maltodextrin isn’t an ingredient—it’s a uncooked materials. When it’s poured into the corporate’s bioreactors, what emerges is tagatose. Discovered naturally in small concentrations in fruit, some grains, and milk, it’s practically as candy as sucrose however apparently with solely round half the energy, and wider well being advantages.
Bonumose’s course of originated in an organization spun out of the Virginia Tech lab of Yi-Heng “Percival” Zhang. When MIT Know-how Evaluate spoke to Zhang, he was sitting alone in an empty lab in Tianjin, China, after serving a two-year sentence of supervised launch in Virginia for conspiracy to defraud the US authorities, making false statements, and obstruction of justice. If sugar is the brand new oil, the worldwide battle to manage it has already begun. Learn the total story.
—Mark Harris
We are able to nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction to brighten up your day. (Received any concepts? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ Paul Mescal simply retains getting cooler.
+ Make this 12 months calmer with these evidence-backed ideas. ($)
+ I can verify that Lumie wake-up lamps actually are price it (and nobody paid me to say so!)
+ There are some actual gems in Inexperienced Day’s bassist Mike Dirnt’s favourite albums listing.
