{"id":877699,"date":"2025-12-16T22:15:38","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T04:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/16\/the-download-solar-geoengineerings-future-and-openai-is-being-sued\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T22:15:38","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T04:15:38","slug":"the-download-solar-geoengineerings-future-and-openai-is-being-sued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/16\/the-download-solar-geoengineerings-future-and-openai-is-being-sued\/","title":{"rendered":"The Download: solar geoengineering\u2019s future, and OpenAI is being sued"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Plus: ICE is tracking pregnant immigrants through smartwatches<\/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

Solar geoengineering startups are getting serious<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Solar geoengineering aims to manipulate the climate by bouncing sunlight back into space. In theory, it could ease global warming. But as interest in the idea grows, so do concerns about potential consequences.<\/p>\n

A startup called Stardust Solutions recently raised a $60 million funding round, the largest known to date for a geoengineering startup. My colleague James Temple has a new story<\/a> out about the company, and how its emergence is making some researchers nervous.<\/p>\n

So far, the field has been limited to debates, proposed academic research, and\u2014sure\u2014a few fringe actors to keep an eye on. Now things are getting more serious. So what does it mean for geoengineering, and for the climate? Read the full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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

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

If you\u2019re interested in reading more about solar geoengineering, check out:<\/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<\/p><\/div>\n

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1 OpenAI is being sued for wrongful death<\/strong>
By the estate of a woman killed by her son after he engaged in delusion-filled conversations with ChatGPT. (WSJ<\/a> $)
+ The chatbot appeared to validate Stein-Erik Soelberg\u2019s conspiratorial ideas. <\/em>(WP<\/a> $)
+ It\u2019s the latest in a string of wrongful death legal actions filed against chatbot makers. <\/em>(ABC News<\/a>)<\/p>\n

2 ICE is tracking pregnant immigrants through specifically-developed smartwatches
<\/strong>They\u2019re unable to take the devices off, even during labor. (The Guardian<\/a>)
+ Pregnant and postpartum women say they\u2019ve been detained in solitary confinement. <\/em>(Slate<\/a> $)
+ Another effort to track ICE raids has been taken offline. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

3 Meta\u2019s new AI hires aren\u2019t making friends with the rest of the company<\/strong>
Tensions are rife between the AGI team and other divisions. (NYT<\/a> $)
+ Mark Zuckerberg is keen to make money off the company\u2019s AI ambitions. <\/em>(Bloomberg<\/a> $)
+ Meanwhile, what\u2019s life like for the remaining Scale AI team? <\/em>(Insider<\/a> $)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

4 Google DeepMind is building its first materials science lab in the UK
<\/strong>It\u2019ll focus on developing new materials to build superconductors and solar cells. (FT<\/a> $)\u00a0<\/p>\n

5 The new space race is to build orbital data centers<\/strong>
And Blue Origin is winning, apparently. (WSJ<\/a> $)
+ Plenty of companies are jostling for their slice of the pie. <\/em>(The Verge<\/a>)
+ Should we be moving data centers to space? <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

6 Inside the quest to find out what causes Parkinson\u2019s<\/p>\n

<\/strong>A growing body of work suggests it may not be purely genetic after all. (Wired<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

7 Are you in TikTok\u2019s cat niche?\u00a0<\/strong>
If so, you\u2019re likely to be in these other niches too. (WP<\/a> $)
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8 Why do our brains get tired? \ud83e\udde0\ud83d\udca4
<\/strong>Researchers are trying to get to the bottom of it.\u00a0 (Nature<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

9 Microsoft\u2019s boss has built his own cricket app \ud83c\udfcf<\/strong>
Satya Nadella can\u2019t get enough of the sound of leather on willow. (Bloomberg<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

10 How much vibe coding is too much vibe coding?\u00a0<\/strong>
One journalist\u2019s journey into the heart of darkness. (Rest of World<\/a>)
+ What is vibe coding, exactly? <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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

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\u201cI feel so much pain seeing his sad face\u2026I hope for a New Year\u2019s miracle.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014A child in Russia sends a message to the Kremlin-aligned Safe Internet League explaining the impact of the country\u2019s decision to block access to the wildly popular gaming platform Roblox on their brother, the Washington Post<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n

\u00a0One more thing<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Why it\u2019s so hard to stop tech-facilitated abuse<\/strong>After Gioia had her first child with her then husband, he installed baby monitors throughout their home\u2014to \u201cwatch what we were doing,\u201d she says, while he went to work. She\u2019d turn them off; he\u2019d get angry. By the time their third child turned seven, Gioia and her husband had divorced, but he still found ways to monitor her behavior.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One Christmas, he gave their youngest a smartwatch. Gioia showed it to a tech-savvy friend, who found that the watch had a tracking feature turned on. It could be turned off only by the watch\u2019s owner\u2014her ex.<\/p>\n

Gioia is far from alone. In fact, tech-facilitated abuse now occurs in most cases of intimate partner violence\u2014and we\u2019re doing shockingly little to prevent it. Read the full story<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2014Jessica Klein<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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

Plus: ICE is tracking pregnant immigrants through smartwatches 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. Solar geoengineering startups are getting serious Solar geoengineering aims to manipulate the climate by bouncing sunlight back into space. In theory, it could ease<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":877700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24097,3945,46],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-877699","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-download","8":"category-solar","9":"category-technology"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877699","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=877699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}