Smart glasses privacy risks in India and AI's trillion-dollar spending gamble

In the same edition, MIT Technology Review described a separate analysis by Jessica Wachter, a University of Pennsylvania finance professor. Wachter wanted to assess AI's impact on the economy over the next few years and started with a simple fact: a handful of so-called hyperscalers are investing huge amounts of money to build AI data centers. Instead of trying to predict how widely deployed AI models will be, she asked how fast the hyperscalers' earnings will need to grow to justify their spending through 2027, when expenditures are expected to reach nearly $1.1 trillion. MIT Technology Review reported that the results are eye-opening: AI companies will need to achieve an extraordinary increase in productivity just to break even by 2030. The story is the latest to become an MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, published each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

The edition also collected other technology stories. Hackers from the ShinyHunters group claim they have stolen data on almost all FBI employees, Axios reported. The group says it seized more than 2 TB of data, including agents' names, addresses, and phone numbers, according to 404 Media. ShinyHunters said the attack was retaliation for an FBI alert, Reuters reported.

Anthropic and OpenAI have both released lower-cost models as they face growing competition from cheaper Chinese models, CNBC reported. Startups have been reducing their reliance on the two labs, Bloomberg reported. The new models are the first since their calls for an AI slowdown, the Financial Times reported. Their CEOs are set to brief the UN Security Council today, Quartz reported.

President Donald Trump's Treasury chief could soon become his new AI czar, Semafor reported. Scott Bessent has played a central role in US-China AI talks. Other contenders include Michael Kratsios and Scott Kupor, Gizmodo reported. The BBC asked whether Trump's AI rebrand to 'superintelligence' will catch on.

Scientists are turning renewable electricity directly into food, with the goal of making more food with less land, New Scientist reported. Companies are creating food out of thin air, MIT Technology Review reported.

A newly discovered 'fire amoeba' has broken the heat survival record for complex life, NPR reported. It can grow and reproduce at 63°C. New Scientist reported it could inform the search for life elsewhere.

Meta quietly tested a 'human concierge' for its Muse AI agent, Reuters reported. Contractors secretly handled some calls placed by Muse. Staff raised concerns about privacy and misleading users, 404 Media reported.

Data centres are replacing copper with light to cut energy use, the BBC reported. Photonics can move data with less heat than electrical wiring. MIT Technology Review reported virtual power plants could also help.

AI models built from rat brains just got closer to reality, Wired reported. AWS is tapping rat neurons to make video AI faster.

Uber is betting on human drivers to give its robotaxis an edge, Axios reported. The drivers can cover demand spikes while autonomous cars recharge.

A humanoid robot took on an amateur fighter in a cage. Futurism reported the brief bout was billed as the first human-robot MMA fight.

President Donald Trump told the UN General Assembly why he wants to rename AI 'superintelligence.' He said: 'The use of the word artificial makes it sound fake. It's not fake; it's actually amazing.'

MIT Technology Review also reported on AI changing how pain is quantified. At Orchard Care Homes, nurses used to rely on an observational scale to assess pain in residents who could not communicate verbally. Agitated residents were sometimes assumed to have behavioral issues, while their pain went untreated. In 2021, the care-home chain began trialing PainChek, a smartphone app that scans a resident's face for microscopic muscle movements and uses AI to output a pain score. Within weeks, the pilot unit saw fewer prescriptions and calmer corridors.