{"id":852145,"date":"2025-05-30T04:12:04","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T09:12:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/30\/the-download-the-next-anti-drone-weapon-and-powering-ais-growth\/"},"modified":"2025-05-30T04:12:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T09:12:04","slug":"the-download-the-next-anti-drone-weapon-and-powering-ais-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/30\/the-download-the-next-anti-drone-weapon-and-powering-ais-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"The Download: the next anti-drone weapon, and powering AI\u2019s growth"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Plus: Elon Musk is leaving his US government role<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n

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This is today’s edition of\u00a0The Download<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.<\/em><\/p>\n

This giant microwave may change the future of war<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Imagine: China deploys hundreds of thousands of autonomous drones in the air, on the sea, and under the water\u2014all armed with explosive warheads or small missiles. These machines descend in a swarm toward military installations on Taiwan and nearby US bases, and over the course of a few hours, a single robotic blitzkrieg overwhelms the US Pacific force before it can even begin to fight back.<\/p>\n

The proliferation of cheap drones means just about any group with the wherewithal to assemble and launch a swarm could wreak havoc, no expensive jets or massive missile installations required.<\/p>\n

The US armed forces are now hunting for a solution\u2014and they want it fast. Every branch of the service and a host of defense tech startups are testing out new weapons that promise to disable drones en masse.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

And one of these is microwaves: high-powered electronic devices that push out kilowatts of power to zap the circuits of a drone as if it were the tinfoil you forgot to take off your leftovers when you heated them up. <\/strong>Read the full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014Sam Dean<\/em><\/p>\n

This article is part of the Big Story series: MIT Technology Review<\/em>\u2019s most important, ambitious reporting that takes a deep look at the technologies that are coming next and what they will mean for us and the world we live in. <\/strong>Check out the rest of them here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What will power AI\u2019s growth?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Last week we published Power Hungry<\/a>, a series that takes a hard look at the expected energy demands of AI. Last week in this newsletter, I broke down its centerpiece, an analysis<\/a> I did with my colleague James O\u2019Donnell.<\/p>\n

But this week, I want to talk about another story that I also wrote for that package, which focused on nuclear energy. As I discovered, building new nuclear plants isn\u2019t so simple or so fast. And as my colleague David Rotman lays out in his story, the AI boom could wind up relying on another energy source: fossil fuels<\/a>. So what\u2019s going to power AI? Read the full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2014Casey Crownhart<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review\u2019s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, <\/strong>sign up here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The must-reads<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve combed the internet to find you today\u2019s most fun\/important\/scary\/fascinating stories about technology.<\/em><\/p>\n

1 Elon Musk is leaving his role in the Trump administration\u00a0<\/strong>
To focus on rebuilding the damaged brand reputations of Tesla and SpaceX. (Axios<\/a>)
+ Musk has complained that DOGE has become a government scapegoat. <\/em>(WP<\/a> $)
+ Tesla shareholders have asked its board to lay out a succession plan. <\/em>(CNN<\/a>)
+ DOGE\u2019s tech takeover threatens the safety and stability of our critical data. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

2 The US will start revoking the visas of Chinese students<\/strong>
Including those studying in what the US government deems \u201ccritical fields.\u201d (Politico<\/a>)
+ It\u2019s also ordered US chip software suppliers to stop selling to China. <\/em>(FT<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

3 The US is storing the DNA of migrant children
<\/strong>It\u2019s been uploaded into a criminal database to track them as they age. (Wired<\/a> $)
+ The US wants to use facial recognition to identify migrant children as they age. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

4 RFK Jr is threatening to ban federal scientists from top journals<\/strong>
Instead, they may be forced to publish in state-run alternatives. (The Hill<\/a>)
+ He accused major medical journals of being funded by Big Pharma. <\/em>(Stat<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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5 India and Pakistan are locked in disinformation warfare<\/strong>
False reports and doctored images are circulating online. (The Guardian<\/a>)
+ Fact checkers are working around the clock to debunk fake news. <\/em>(Reuters<\/a>)<\/p>\n

6 How North Korea is infiltrating remote jobs in the US
<\/strong>With the help of regular Americans. (WSJ<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

7 This Discord community is creating its own hair-growth drugs
<\/strong>Men are going to extreme lengths to reverse their hair loss. (404 Media<\/a>)<\/p>\n

8 Inside YouTube\u2019s quest to dominate your living room ????<\/strong>
It wants to move away from controversial clips and into prestige TV. (Bloomberg<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

9 Sergey Brin threatens AI models with physical violence<\/strong>
The Google co-founder insists that it produces better results. (The Register<\/a>)<\/p>\n

10 It must be nice to be a moving day influencer ????<\/strong>
They reap all of the benefits, with none of the stress. (NY Mag<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

Quote of the day<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u201cI studied in the US because I loved what America is about: it\u2019s open, inclusive and diverse. Now my students and I feel slapped in the face by Trump\u2019s policy.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014Cathy Tu, a Chinese AI researcher, tells the Washington Post<\/a> why many of her students are already applying to universities outside the US after the Trump administration announced a crackdown on visas for Chinese students.<\/p>\n

One more thing<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/figure>\n
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The second wave of AI coding is here<\/strong>Ask people building generative AI what generative AI is good for right now\u2014what they\u2019re really fired up about\u2014and many will tell you: coding.<\/p>\n

Everyone from established AI giants to buzzy startups is promising to take coding assistants to the next level. Instead of providing developers with a kind of supercharged autocomplete, this next generation can prototype, test, and debug code for you. The upshot is that developers could essentially turn into managers, who may spend more time reviewing and correcting code written by a model than writing it from scratch themselves.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s more. Many of the people building generative coding assistants think that they could be a fast track to artificial general intelligence, the hypothetical superhuman technology that a number of top firms claim to have in their sights. Read the full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2014Will Douglas Heaven<\/em><\/p>\n

We can still have nice things<\/strong><\/p>\n

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? <\/em>Drop me a line<\/em><\/a> or <\/em>skeet ’em at me<\/em><\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n

+ If you\u2019ve ever dreamed of owning a piece of cinematic history, more than 400 of David Lynch\u2019s personal items<\/a> are going up for auction.
+ How accurate are those Hollywood films based on true stories? Let’s find out<\/a>.
+ Rest in peace Chicago Mike: the legendary hype man to Kool & the Gang<\/a>.
+ How to fully trust<\/a> in one another. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Rhiannon Williams<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Plus: Elon Musk is leaving his US government role This is today’s edition of\u00a0The Download ,\u00a0our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. This giant microwave may change the future of war Imagine: China deploys hundreds of thousands of autonomous drones in the air, on the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":852146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[144280,24097,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-852145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anti-drone","category-download","category-technology"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=852145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}