Plus: Roomba maker iRobot has filed for bankruptcy
This 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.
Introducing: the AI Hype Correction package
AI is going to reproduce human intelligence. AI will eliminate disease. AI is the single biggest, most important invention in human history. You’ve likely heard it all—but probably none of these things are true.
AI is changing our world, but we don’t yet know the real winners, or how this will all shake out.
After a few years of out-of-control hype, people are now starting to re-calibrate what AI is, what it can do, and how we should think about its ultimate impact.
Here, at the end of 2025, we’re starting the post-hype phase. This new package of stories, called Hype Correction, is a way to reset expectations—a critical look at where we are, what AI makes possible, and where we go next.
Here’s a sneak peek at what you can expect:
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 iRobot has filed for bankruptcy
The Roomba maker is considering handing over control to its main Chinese supplier. (Bloomberg $)
+ A proposed Amazon acquisition fell through close to two years ago. (FT $)
+ How the company lost its way. (TechCrunch)
+ A Roomba recorded a woman on the toilet. How did screenshots end up on Facebook? (MIT Technology Review)
2 Meta’s 2025 has been a total rollercoaster ride
From its controversial AI team to Mark Zuckerberg’s newfound appreciation for masculine energy. (Insider $)
3 The Trump administration is giving the crypto industry a much easier ride
It’s dismissed crypto lawsuits involving many firms with financial ties to Trump. (NYT $)
+ Celebrities are feeling emboldened to flog crypto once again. (The Guardian)
+ A bitcoin investor wants to set up a crypto libertarian community in the Caribbean. (FT $)
4 There’s a new weight-loss drug in town
And people are already taking it, even though it’s unapproved. (Wired $)
+ What we still don’t know about weight-loss drugs. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Chinese billionaires are having dozens of US-born surrogate babies
An entire industry has sprung up to support them. (WSJ $)
+ A controversial Chinese CRISPR scientist is still hopeful about embryo gene editing. (MIT Technology Review)
6 Trump’s “big beautiful bill” funding hinges on states integrating AI into healthcare
Experts fear it’ll be used as a cost-cutting measure, even if it doesn’t work. (The Guardian)
+ Artificial intelligence is infiltrating health care. We shouldn’t let it make all the decisions. (MIT Technology Review)
7 Extreme rainfall is wreaking havoc in the desert
Oman and the UAE are unaccustomed to increasingly common torrential downpours. (WP $)
8 Data centers are being built in countries that are too hot for them
Which makes it a lot harder to cool them sufficiently. (Rest of World)
9 Why AI image generators are getting deliberately worse
Their makers are pursuing realism—not that overly polished, Uncanny Valley look. (The Verge)
+ Inside the AI attention economy wars. (NY Mag $)
10 How a tiny Swedish city became a major video game hub
Skövde has formed an unlikely community of cutting-edge developers. (The Guardian)
+ Google DeepMind is using Gemini to train agents inside one of Skövde’s biggest franchises. (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“They don’t care about the games. They don’t care about the art. They just want their money.”
—Anna C Webster, chair of the freelancing committee of the United Videogame Workers union, tells the Guardian why their members are protesting the prestigious 2025 Game Awards in the wake of major layoffs.
One more thing
Recapturing early internet whimsy with HTMLWebsites weren’t always slick digital experiences.
There was a time when surfing the web involved opening tabs that played music against your will and sifting through walls of text on a colored background. In the 2000s, before Squarespace and social media, websites were manifestations of individuality—built from scratch using HTML, by users who had some knowledge of code.
Scattered across the web are communities of programmers working to revive this seemingly outdated approach. And the movement is anything but a superficial appeal to retro aesthetics—it’s about celebrating the human touch in digital experiences. Read the full story.
—Tiffany Ng
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 or skeet ’em at me.)
+ Here’s how a bit of math can help you wrap your presents much more neatly this year.
+ It seems that humans mastered making fire way, way earlier than we realized.
+ The Arab-owned cafes opening up across the US sound warm and welcoming.
+ How to give a gift the recipient will still be using and loving for decades to come.
Read More
Rhiannon Williams