AI is driving unprecedented funding for enormous information facilities and an vitality provide that may help its big computational urge for food. One potential supply of electrical energy for these services is next-generation nuclear energy crops, which could possibly be cheaper to assemble and safer to function than their predecessors.
We not too long ago held a subscriber-exclusive Roundtables dialogue on hyperscale AI information facilities and next-gen nuclear—two featured applied sciences on the MIT Expertise Evaluation 10 Breakthrough Applied sciences of 2026 record. You possibly can watch the dialog again right here, and don’t overlook to subscribe to ensure you catch future discussions as they occur.
How social media encourages the worst of AI boosterism
Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, summed it up in three phrases: “That is embarrassing.”
Hassabis was replying on X to an overexcited submit by Sébastien Bubeck, a analysis scientist on the rival agency OpenAI, asserting that two mathematicians had used OpenAI’s newest massive language mannequin, GPT-5, to seek out options to 10 unsolved issues in arithmetic.
Put your math hats on for a minute, and let’s check out what this beef from mid-October was about. It’s an ideal instance of what’s mistaken with AI proper now.
—Will Douglas Heaven
This story initially appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly e-newsletter on AI. To get tales like this in your inbox first, join right here.
The paints, coatings, and chemical substances making the world a cooler place
It’s getting tougher to beat the warmth. Throughout the summer season of 2025, warmth waves knocked out energy grids in North America, Europe, and the Center East. World warming means extra individuals want air-conditioning, which requires extra energy and strains grids.
However a millennia-old concept (plus Twenty first-century tech) may supply a solution: radiative cooling. Paints, coatings, and textiles can scatter daylight and dissipate warmth—no further vitality required. Learn the total story.
