{"id":18885,"date":"2026-03-02T14:01:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T14:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/02\/the-download-protesting-ai-and-whats-floating-in-space\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T14:01:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T14:01:22","slug":"the-download-protesting-ai-and-whats-floating-in-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/02\/the-download-protesting-ai-and-whats-floating-in-space\/","title":{"rendered":"The Download: protesting AI, and what\u2019s floating in space"},"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

I checked out one of the biggest anti-AI protests ever<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pull the plug! Pull the plug! Stop the slop! Stop the slop! For a few hours this Saturday, February 28, I watched as a couple hundred anti-AI protesters marched through London\u2019s King\u2019s Cross tech hub, home to the UK headquarters of OpenAI, Meta and Google DeepMind, chanting slogans and waving signs. The march was organized by a coalition of two separate activist groups, Pause AI and Pull the Plug, who billed it as the largest protest of its kind yet.<\/p>\n

This is all familiar stuff. Researchers have been calling out the harms, both real and hypothetical, caused by generative AI\u2014 especially models such as OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT and Google DeepMind\u2019s Gemini\u2014for years. What\u2019s changed is that those concerns are now being taken up by protest movements that can rally significant crowds of people to take to the streets and shout about it. Read the full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014Will Douglas Heaven<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

We\u2019re putting more stuff into space than ever. Here\u2019s what\u2019s up there.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Earth\u2019s a medium-size rock with some water on top, enveloped by gases that keep everything that lives here alive. Just at the edge of that envelope begins a thin but dense layer of human-built, high-tech stuff.<\/p>\n

People started putting gear up there in 1957, and now it\u2019s a real habit. Telescopes look up and out at the wild universe. Humans live in an orbiting metal bubble. In the last five years, the number of active satellites in space has increased from barely 3,000 to about 14,000\u2014and climbing. And then there\u2019s the garbage. Here\u2019s a closer look at Earth\u2019s ever-thickening shell of human-made matter\u2014the anthroposphere<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014Jonathan O\u2019Callaghan<\/em><\/p>\n

This story is from the <\/strong>latest print issue<\/strong><\/a> of MIT Technology Review<\/em> magazine. If you haven\u2019t already, <\/strong>subscribe now<\/strong><\/a> to receive future issues once they land.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

MIT Technology Review is a 2026 ASME finalist in reporting<\/strong><\/p>\n

The American Society of Magazine Editors has named MIT Technology Review<\/em> as a finalist for a 2026 National Magazine Award in the reporting category.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The shortlisted story\u2014\u201cWe did the math on AI\u2019s energy footprint. Here\u2019s the story you haven\u2019t heard<\/a>\u201d\u2014is part of our Power Hungry package<\/a> on AI\u2019s energy burden.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a rigorous investigation, senior AI reporter James O\u2019Donnell and senior climate reporter Casey Crownhart spent six months digging through hundreds of pages of reports, interviewing experts, and crunching the numbers. Read more about what they found out<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

What comes after the LLMs?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The AI industry is organized around LLMs: tools, products, and business models. Yet many researchers believe the next breakthroughs may not look like language models at all. Join us for a LinkedIn Live discussion at 12.30pm ET on Tuesday March 3 to dive into the emerging directions that could define AI\u2019s next era. Register here<\/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 The Pentagon wanted Anthropic to analyze bulk data collected from Americans\u00a0
<\/strong>It proved the sticking point in talks as OpenAI swooped in to ink a new deal. (The Atlantic<\/a> $)+ Anthropic has vowed to legally challenge its \u201csecurity risk\u201d label. <\/em>(FT<\/a> $)
+ Here\u2019s a blow-by-blow look at how negotiations fell apart. <\/em>(NYT<\/a> $)
+ Downloads of Claude are on the up. <\/em>(TechCrunch<\/a>)<\/p>\n

2 Iranian apps and websites were hacked in the wake of the US-Israeli strikes<\/strong>
News sites and a religious app were co-opted to display anti-military messages. (Reuters<\/a>)
+ They urged personnel to abandon the regime and to liberate the country. <\/em>(WSJ<\/a> $)
+ Unsurprisingly, X is rife with disinformation about the attacks. <\/em>(Wired<\/a> $)
+ The campaign has disrupted online delivery orders across the Middle East. <\/em>(Bloomberg<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

3 DeepSeek is poised to release a new AI model this week
<\/strong>The multimodal V4 is being released ahead of China\u2019s annual parliamentary meetings. (FT<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

4 The UK is trialing a social media ban for under-16s<\/strong>
Hundreds of teens will test overnight digital curfews and screen time limits. (The Guardian<\/a>)
+ What it\u2019s like to attend a phone addiction meeting. <\/em>(Boston Globe<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

5 Celebrities are winning huge sums playing on this major crypto casino\u2019s slots
<\/strong>In fact, their lucky wins appear to spike while they\u2019re livestreaming. (Bloomberg<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

6 America is desperate to steal China\u2019s critical mineral lead<\/strong>
The victor essentially controls global computing, aerospace and defense. (Economist<\/a> $)
+ This rare earth metal shows us the future of our planet\u2019s resources. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

7 How lasers became the military\u2019s weapon of choice
<\/strong>From Ukraine to the US, soldiers are deploying laser guns. But why? (The Atlantic<\/a> $)
+ They\u2019re a key part of America\u2019s arsenal in manning the southern border. <\/em>(New Yorker<\/a> $)
+ This giant microwave may change the future of war. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

8 How quantum entanglement became big business<\/strong>
It promises unhackable communication\u2014but is it too good to be true? (New Scientist<\/a> $)
+ Useful quantum computing is inevitable\u2014and increasingly imminent. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

9 The iPod is proving a hit among Gen Z<\/strong>
Even though Apple discontinued the music player four years ago. (NYT<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

10 Chinese parents are joining matchmaking apps in their droves<\/strong>
In a bid to marry off their adult children as soon as humanly possible. (Nikkei Asia<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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

\u201cDay to day it just feels untenable\u2026Some managers know this is the case, but executives just keep pointing to some bigger AI picture.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014An anonymous Amazon employee describes the stresses of trying to increase productivity amid the company\u2019s commitment to reducing headcount to the Financial Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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

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

The iPad was meant to revolutionize accessibility. What happened?<\/strong><\/p>\n

On April 3, 2010, Steve Jobs debuted the iPad. What for most people was basically a more convenient form factor was something far more consequential for non-speakers: a life-\u00adchanging revolution in access to a portable, powerful communication device for just a few hundred dollars.<\/p>\n

But a piece of hardware, however impressively designed and engineered, is only as valuable as what a person can do with it. After the iPad\u2019s release, the flood of new, easy-to-use augmentative and alternative communication apps that users were in desperate need of never came.<\/p>\n

Today, there are only around half a dozen apps, each retailing for $200 to $300, that ask users to select from menus of crudely drawn icons to produce text and synthesized speech. It\u2019s a depressingly slow pace of development for such an essential human function. Read the full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014Julie Kim<\/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

+ Neanderthal by name, not by nature\u2014these prehistoric men<\/a> were surprisingly romantic, thank you very much.
+ If you\u2019re lucky enough to live in Boston, make sure you swing by these beautiful bars<\/a>.
+ Hmm, this sticky hoisin sausage traybake<\/a> sounds intriguing.
+ George Takei<\/a>, you are an absolute maverick.<\/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-18885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18885","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=18885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18885\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}