{"id":877661,"date":"2025-12-16T22:15:57","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T04:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/16\/the-download-why-2025-has-been-the-year-of-ai-hype-correction-and-fighting-gps-jamming\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T22:15:57","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T04:15:57","slug":"the-download-why-2025-has-been-the-year-of-ai-hype-correction-and-fighting-gps-jamming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/16\/the-download-why-2025-has-been-the-year-of-ai-hype-correction-and-fighting-gps-jamming\/","title":{"rendered":"The Download: why 2025 has been the year of AI hype correction, and fighting GPS jamming"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Plus: the Trump administration wants to hire back all those tech experts that DOGE fired<\/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

The great AI hype correction of 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Some disillusionment was inevitable. When OpenAI released a free web app called ChatGPT in late 2022, it changed the course of an entire industry\u2014and several world economies. Millions of people started talking to their computers, and their computers started talking back. We were enchanted, and we expected more.<\/p>\n

Well, 2025 has been a year of reckoning. For a start, the heads of the top AI companies made promises they couldn\u2019t keep. At the same time, updates to the core technology are no longer the step changes they once were.<\/p>\n

To be clear, the last few years have been filled with genuine \u201cWow\u201d moments. But this remarkable technology is only a few years old, and in many ways it is still experimental. Its successes come with big caveats. Read the full story to learn more about why we may need to readjust our expectations<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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

This story is part of our new Hype Correction package, a collection of stories designed to help you reset your expectations about what AI makes possible\u2014and what it doesn\u2019t. <\/strong>Check out the rest of the package here<\/strong><\/a>, and you can read more about why it\u2019s time to reset our expectations for AI in the <\/strong>latest edition of the Algorithm<\/strong><\/a>, our weekly AI newsletter. <\/strong>Sign up here<\/strong><\/a> to make sure you receive future editions straight to your inbox.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Quantum navigation could solve the military\u2019s GPS jamming problem<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, thousands of flights have been affected by a far-reaching Russian campaign of using radio transmissions that jammed its GPS system.<\/p>\n

The growing inconvenience to air traffic and risk of a real disaster have highlighted the vulnerability of GPS and focused attention on more secure ways for planes to navigate the gauntlet of jamming and spoofing, the term for tricking a GPS receiver into thinking it\u2019s somewhere else.<\/p>\n

One approach that\u2019s emerging from labs is quantum navigation: exploiting the quantum nature of light and atoms to build ultra-sensitive sensors that can allow vehicles to navigate independently, without depending on satellites. Read the full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014Amos Zeeberg<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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

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

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1 The Trump administration has launched its US Tech Force program<\/strong>
In a bid to lure engineers away from Big Tech roles and straight into modernizing the government. (The Verge<\/a>)
+ So, essentially replacing the IT workers that DOGE got rid of, then. <\/em>(The Register<\/a>)<\/p>\n

2 Lawmakers are investigating how AI data centers affect electricity costs<\/strong>
They want to get to the bottom of whether it\u2019s being passed onto consumers. (NYT<\/a> $)
+ Calculating AI\u2019s water usage is far from straightforward, too. <\/em>(Wired<\/a> $)
+ AI is changing the grid. Could it help more than it harms? <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

3 Ford isn\u2019t making a large all-electric truck after all
<\/strong>After the US government\u2019s support for EVs plummeted. (Wired<\/a> $)
+ Instead, the F-150 Lightning pickup will be reborn as a plug-in hybrid. <\/em>(The Information<\/a> $)
+ Why Americans may be finally ready to embrace smaller cars. <\/em>(Fast Company<\/a> $)
+ The US could really use an affordable electric truck. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

4 PayPal wants to become a bank in the US<\/p>\n

<\/strong>The Trump administration is very friendly to non-traditional financial companies, after all. (FT<\/a> $)
+ It\u2019s been a good year for the crypto industry when it comes to banking. <\/em>(Economist<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

5 A tech trade deal between the US and UK has been put on ice<\/p>\n

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America isn\u2019t happy with the lack of progress Britain has made, apparently. (NYT<\/a> $)
+ It\u2019s a major setback in relations between the pair. <\/em>(The Guardian<\/a>)<\/p>\n

6 Why does no one want to make the cure for dengue?<\/p>\n

<\/strong>A new antiviral pill appears to prevent infection\u2014but its development has been abandoned. (Vox<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

7 The majority of the world\u2019s glaciers are forecast to disappear by 2100
<\/strong>At a rate of around 3,000 per year. (New Scientist<\/a> $)
+ Inside a new quest to save the \u201cdoomsday glacier\u201d. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

8 Hollywood is split over AI
<\/strong>While some filmmakers love it, actors are horrified by its inexorable rise. (Bloomberg<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

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9 Corporate America is obsessed with hiring storytellers<\/strong>
It\u2019s essentially a rehashed media relations manager role overhauled for the AI age. (WSJ<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

10 The concept of hacking existed before the internet<\/strong>
Just ask this bunch of teenage geeks. (IEEE Spectrum<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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

\u201cSo the federal government deleted 18F, which was doing great work modernizing the government, and then replaced it with a clone? What is the point of all this?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u2014Eugene Vinitsky, an assistant professor at New York University, takes aim at the US government\u2019s decision to launch a new team to overhaul its approach to technology in a post<\/a> on Bluesky.<\/p>\n

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

<\/a><\/figure>\n
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How DeepSeek became a fortune teller for China\u2019s youth<\/strong><\/p>\n

As DeepSeek has emerged as a homegrown challenger to OpenAI, young people across the country have started using AI to revive fortune-telling practices that have deep roots in Chinese culture.<\/p>\n

Across Chinese social media, users are sharing AI-generated readings, experimenting with fortune-telling prompt engineering, and revisiting ancient spiritual texts\u2014all with the help of DeepSeek.<\/p>\n

The surge in AI fortune-telling comes during a time of pervasive anxiety and pessimism in Chinese society. And as spiritual practices remain hidden underground thanks to the country\u2019s regime, computers and phone screens are helping younger people to gain a sense of control over their lives. Read the full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2014Caiwen Chen<\/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

+ Chess<\/a> has been online as far back as the 1800s (no, really!) \u265f\ufe0f
+ Jane Austen was born 250 years ago today. How well do you know her writing<\/a>? ($)
+ Rob Reiner<\/a>, your work will live on forever.
+ I enjoyed this comprehensive guide to absolutely everything you could ever want to know about New England\u2019s extensive seafood offerings<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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

Plus: the Trump administration wants to hire back all those tech experts that DOGE fired 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. The great AI hype correction of 2025 Some disillusionment was inevitable. When OpenAI released a free web<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":877662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31127,24097,46],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-877661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-correction","8":"category-download","9":"category-technology"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877661","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=877661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}