{"id":877679,"date":"2025-12-16T22:15:48","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T04:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/16\/the-download-introducing-the-ai-hype-correction-package\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T22:15:48","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T04:15:48","slug":"the-download-introducing-the-ai-hype-correction-package","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/16\/the-download-introducing-the-ai-hype-correction-package\/","title":{"rendered":"The Download: introducing the AI Hype Correction package"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Plus: Roomba maker iRobot has filed for bankruptcy<\/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

Introducing: the AI Hype Correction package<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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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\u2014but probably none of these things are true.<\/p>\n

AI is<\/em> changing our world, but we don’t yet know the real winners, or how this will all shake out.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Here, at the end of 2025, we’re starting the post-hype phase. This new package of stories<\/a>, called Hype Correction, is a way to reset expectations\u2014a critical look at where we are, what AI makes possible, and where we go next.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a sneak peek at what you can expect:<\/p>\n<\/div>\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 iRobot has filed for bankruptcy
<\/strong>The Roomba maker is considering handing over control to its main Chinese supplier. (Bloomberg<\/a> $)
+ A proposed Amazon acquisition fell through close to two years ago. <\/em>(FT<\/a> $)
+ How the company lost its way. <\/em>(TechCrunch<\/a>)
+ A Roomba recorded a woman on the toilet. How did screenshots end up on Facebook? <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

2 Meta\u2019s 2025 has been a total rollercoaster ride
<\/strong>From its controversial AI team to Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s newfound appreciation for masculine energy. (Insider<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

3 The Trump administration is giving the crypto industry a much easier ride<\/strong>
It\u2019s dismissed crypto lawsuits involving many firms with financial ties to Trump. (NYT<\/a> $)
+ Celebrities are feeling emboldened to flog crypto once again. <\/em>(The Guardian<\/a>)
+ A bitcoin investor wants to set up a crypto libertarian community in the Caribbean. <\/em>(FT<\/a> $)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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4 There\u2019s a new weight-loss drug in town<\/strong>
And people are already taking it, even though it\u2019s unapproved. (Wired<\/a> $)
+ What we still don\u2019t know about weight-loss drugs. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

5 Chinese billionaires are having dozens of US-born surrogate babies<\/strong>
An entire industry has sprung up to support them. (WSJ<\/a> $)
+ A controversial Chinese CRISPR scientist is still hopeful about embryo gene editing. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

6 Trump\u2019s \u201cbig beautiful bill\u201d funding hinges on states integrating AI into healthcare
<\/strong>Experts fear it’ll be used as a cost-cutting measure, even if it doesn\u2019t work. (The Guardian<\/a>)
+ Artificial intelligence is infiltrating health care. We shouldn\u2019t let it make all the decisions. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

7 Extreme rainfall is wreaking havoc in the desert
<\/strong>Oman and the UAE are unaccustomed to increasingly common torrential downpours. (WP<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

8 Data centers are being built in countries that are too hot for them
<\/strong>Which makes it a lot harder to cool them sufficiently. (Rest of World<\/a>)<\/p>\n

9 Why AI image generators are getting deliberately worse
<\/strong>Their makers are pursuing realism\u2014not that overly polished, Uncanny Valley look. (The Verge<\/a>)
+ Inside the AI attention economy wars. <\/em>(NY Mag<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

10 How a tiny Swedish city became a major video game hub<\/strong>
Sk\u00f6vde has formed an unlikely community of cutting-edge developers. (The Guardian<\/a>)
+ Google DeepMind is using Gemini to train agents inside one of Sk\u00f6vde\u2019s biggest franchises. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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

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\u201cThey don\u2019t care about the games. They don\u2019t care about the art. They just want their money.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014Anna C Webster, chair of the freelancing committee of the United Videogame Workers union, tells the Guardian<\/a> why their members are protesting the prestigious 2025 Game Awards in the wake of major layoffs.<\/p>\n

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

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Recapturing early internet whimsy with HTML<\/strong>Websites weren\u2019t always slick digital experiences.<\/p>\n

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\u2014built from scratch using HTML, by users who had some knowledge of code.<\/p>\n

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\u2014it\u2019s about celebrating the human touch in digital experiences. Read the full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2014Tiffany Ng<\/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

+\u00a0 Here\u2019s how a bit of math can help you wrap your presents<\/a> much more neatly this year.
+ It seems that humans mastered making fire<\/a> way, way earlier than we realized.
+ The Arab-owned cafes<\/a> opening up across the US sound warm and welcoming.
+ How to give a gift<\/a> the recipient will still be using and loving for decades to come. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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

Plus: Roomba maker iRobot has filed for bankruptcy 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. Introducing: the AI Hype Correction package AI is going to reproduce human intelligence. AI will eliminate disease. AI is the single biggest, most important<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":877680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24097,28681,46],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-877679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-download","8":"category-introducing","9":"category-technology"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877679","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=877679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}