{"id":17371,"date":"2026-02-02T13:24:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T13:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/02\/the-download-inside-a-deepfake-marketplace-and-ev-batteries-future\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T13:24:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T13:24:06","slug":"the-download-inside-a-deepfake-marketplace-and-ev-batteries-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/02\/the-download-inside-a-deepfake-marketplace-and-ev-batteries-future\/","title":{"rendered":"The Download: inside a deepfake marketplace, and EV batteries\u2019 future"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

This is today\u2019s edition of\u00a0The Download<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what\u2019s going on in the world of technology.<\/em><\/p>\n

Inside the marketplace powering bespoke AI deepfakes of real women<\/strong><\/p>\n

Civitai\u2014an online marketplace for buying and selling AI-generated content, backed by the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz\u2014is letting users buy custom instruction files for generating celebrity deepfakes. Some of these files were specifically designed to make pornographic images banned by the site, a new analysis has found.<\/p>\n

The study, from researchers at Stanford and Indiana University, looked at people\u2019s requests for content on the site, called \u201cbounties.\u201d The researchers found that between mid-2023 and the end of 2024, most bounties asked for animated content\u2014but a significant portion were for deepfakes of real people, and 90% of these deepfake requests targeted women. Read the full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014James O\u2019Donnell<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next for EV batteries in 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Demand for electric vehicles and the batteries that power them has never been hotter.<\/p>\n

In 2025, EVs made up over a quarter of new vehicle sales globally, up from less than 5% in 2020. Some regions are seeing even higher uptake: In China, more than 50% of new vehicle sales last year were battery electric or plug-in hybrids. In Europe, more purely electric vehicles hit the roads in December than gas-powered ones. (The US is the notable exception here, dragging down the global average with a small sales decline from 2024.)<\/p>\n

As EVs become increasingly common on the roads, the battery world is growing too. Here\u2019s what\u2019s coming next for EV batteries in 2026 and beyond<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

This story is part of MIT Technology Review<\/em>\u2019s What\u2019s Next series, which examines industries, trends, and technologies to give you a first look at the future. <\/strong>You can read the rest of them here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

TR10: Base-edited baby<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kyle \u201cKJ\u201d Muldoon Jr. was born with a rare, potentially fatal genetic disorder that left his body unable to remove toxic ammonia from his blood. The University of Pennsylvania offered his parents an alternative to a liver transplant: gene-editing therapies.<\/p>\n

The team set to work developing a tailored treatment using base editing\u2014a form of CRISPR that can correct genetic \u201cmisspellings\u201d by changing single bases, the basic units of DNA. KJ received an initial low dose when he was seven months old, and later received two higher doses. Today, KJ is doing well. At an event in October last year, his happy parents described how he was meeting all his developmental milestones.<\/p>\n

Others have received gene-editing therapies intended to treat conditions including sickle cell disease and a predisposition to high cholesterol. But KJ was the first to receive a personalized treatment\u2014one that was designed just for him and will probably never be used again. Read why we made it one of our 10 Breakthrough Technologies this year<\/a>, and check out the rest of the list<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/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

1 A social network for AI agents is vulnerable to abuse<\/strong>
A misconfiguration meant anyone could take control of any agent. (404 Media<\/a>)
+ Moltbook is loosely modeled on Reddit, but humans are unable to post. <\/em>(FT<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

2 Google breached its own ethics rules to help an Israeli contractor<\/strong>
It helped a military worker to analyze drone footage, a whistleblower has claimed. (WP<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

3 Capgemini is selling its unit linked to ICE
<\/strong>After the French government asked it to clarify its work for the agency. (Bloomberg<\/a> $)\u00a0
+ The company has signed $12.2mn in contracts under the Trump administration. <\/em>(FT<\/a> $)
+ Here\u2019s how to film ICE activities as safely as possible. <\/em>(Wired<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

4 China has a plan to prime its next generation of AI experts\u00a0<\/strong>
Thanks to its elite genius class system. (FT<\/a> $)
+ The country is going all-in on AI healthcare. <\/em>(Rest of World<\/a>)
+ The State of AI: Is China about to win the race? <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

5 Indonesia has reversed its ban on xAI\u2019s Grok<\/strong>
After it announced plans to improve its compliance with the country\u2019s laws. (Reuters<\/a>)
+ Indonesia maintains a strict stance against pornographic content. <\/em>(NYT<\/a> $)
+ Malaysia and the Philippines have also lifted bans on the chatbot. <\/em>(TechCrunch<\/a>)<\/p>\n

6 Don\u2019t expect to hitch a ride on a Blue Origin rocket anytime soon
<\/strong>Jeff Bezos\u2019 venture won\u2019t be taking tourists into space for at least two years. (NYT<\/a> $)
+ Artemis II astronauts are due to set off for the moon soon. <\/em>(IEEE Spectrum<\/a>)
+ Commercial space stations are on our list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2026. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

<\/em>7 America\u2019s push for high-speed internet is under threat
<\/strong>There aren\u2019t enough skilled workers to meet record demand. (WSJ<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

8 Can AI help us grieve better?
<\/strong>A growing cluster of companies are trying to find out. (The Atlantic<\/a> $)
+ Technology that lets us \u201cspeak\u201d to our dead relatives has arrived. Are we ready? <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

9 How to fight future insect infestations \"\ud83c\udf44\"<\/strong>
A certain species of fungus could play a key role. (Ars Technica<\/a>)
+ How do fungi communicate? <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

10 What a robot-made latte tastes like, according to a former barista<\/strong>
Damn fine, apparently. (The Verge<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0\u201cIt feels like a wild bison rampaging around in my computer.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014A user who signed up to AI agent Moltbot remarks on the bot\u2019s unpredictable behavior, Rest of World<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n

How Wi-Fi sensing became usable tech<\/p>\n

<\/strong>Wi-Fi sensing is a tantalizing concept: that the same routers bringing you the internet could also detect your movements. But, as a way to monitor health, it\u2019s mostly been eclipsed by other technologies, like ultra-wideband radar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite that, Wi-Fi sensing hasn\u2019t gone away. Instead, it has quietly become available in millions of homes, supported by leading internet service providers, smart-home companies, and chip manufacturers.<\/p>\n

Soon it could be invisibly monitoring our day-to-day movements for all sorts of surprising\u2014and sometimes alarming\u2014purposes. Read the full story<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2014Meg Duff<\/em><\/p>\n<\/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 \u2019em at me<\/em><\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n

+ These intrepid Scottish bakers created the largest ever Empire biscuit<\/a> (a classic shortbread cookie covered in icing) \"\ud83c\udf6a\"
+ My, what big tentacles<\/a> you have!
+ If you\u2019ve been feeling like you\u2019re stuck in a rut<\/a> lately, this advice could be exactly what you need to overcome it.
+ These works of psychedelic horror<\/a> are guaranteed to send a shiver down your spine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is today\u2019s edition of\u00a0The Download,\u00a0our weekday newsletter that provides […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[226],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17371\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}