The Download: Introducing the Power issue

Introducing: the Power issue

Energy is power. Those who can produce it, especially lots of it, get to exert authority in all sorts of ways.

The world is increasingly powered by both tangible electricity and intangible intelligence. Plus billionaires. The latest issue of MIT Technology Review explores those intersections, in all their forms.

Here’s just a taster of what you can expect from our latest issue:

+ Are we ready to hand AI agents the keys? We’re starting to give AI agents real autonomy, and we’re not prepared for what could happen next. Read the full story.

+ In Nebraska, a publicly owned electricity distribution system is an effective lens through which to examine the grid of the near future.

+ Cases of cancer, heart disease, and respiratory illnesses are on the rise in the area surrounding Puerto Rico’s only coal-fired power station. So why has it just been given permission to stay open for at least another seven years? Read the full story.

+ How AI is shaking up urban planning and helping make cities better.

+ Tech billionaires are making a risky bet with humanity’s future. They say they want to save humanity by creating superintelligent AI—but a new book argues that they’re steering humanity in a dangerous direction.

The Bank Secrecy Act is failing everyone. It’s time to rethink financial surveillance.

—Katie Haun is the CEO and founder of Haun Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on frontier technologies.

The US is on the brink of enacting rules for digital assets, with growing bipartisan momentum to modernize its financial system. But amid all the talk about innovation and global competitiveness, one issue has been glaringly absent: financial privacy.

As we build the digital infrastructure of the 21st century, we need to talk about not just what’s possible but what’s acceptable. That means confronting the expanding surveillance powers quietly embedded in our financial system, which today can track nearly every transaction without a warrant. Read the full story.