{"id":22742,"date":"2026-05-12T12:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T12:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/12\/the-download-nobel-winner-ai-maintenance-of-everything\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T12:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T12:26:09","slug":"the-download-nobel-winner-ai-maintenance-of-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/12\/the-download-nobel-winner-ai-maintenance-of-everything\/","title":{"rendered":"The Download: a Nobel winner on AI, and the case for fixing everything"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

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

Three things in AI to watch, according to a Nobel-winning economist<\/strong><\/h3>\n

A few months before he won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2024, Daron Acemoglu published a paper that earned him few fans in Silicon Valley. He argued that AI would give only a small boost to US productivity and would not eliminate the need for human work.<\/p>\n

Two years later, Acemoglu\u2019s measured take has not caught on. The technology has\u00a0advanced quite a bit since his cautious predictions, but the data is still largely on his side.\u00a0<\/p>\n

MIT Technology Review<\/em> spoke with him to understand if any of the latest developments have changed his thesis. Here are the three things Acemoglu is paying closest attention to in AI right now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

This <\/strong>story<\/strong><\/a> is from The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things AI. <\/strong>Sign up<\/strong><\/a> to receive it in your inbox every Monday.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The case for fixing everything<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Stewart Brand, the counterculture icon and tech industry legend, considers maintenance a \u201ccivilizational\u201d act. His new book argues that taking responsibility for maintaining something, whether a motorcycle, a monument, or the planet, can be radical.<\/p>\n

Brand argues that maintainers haven\u2019t gotten the laurels they deserve\u2014and he\u2019s right. Yet his vision of maintenance often feels solitary: profound, but more about personal fulfillment than tending to a shared world or making it better.<\/p>\n

Read the full review of his handsome new book, Maintenance: Of Everything, Part One<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014Lee Vinsel<\/em><\/p>\n

Lee Vinsel is an associate professor of science, technology, and society at Virginia Tech, a cofounder of The Maintainers<\/a>, and the host of Peoples & Things, a podcast about human life with technology.<\/em><\/p>\n

This story<\/a> is from the latest edition of our print magazine, which is all about nature. <\/strong>Subscribe now<\/strong><\/a> to read the full issue and receive future print copies once they land.<\/strong><\/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 first zero-day exploit built by AI has been discovered
<\/strong>Google spotted and stopped the attempted \u201cmass exploitation event.\u201d (CNBC<\/a>)
+ The hackers used AI to discover an unknown bug.<\/em> (NYT<\/a> $)
+ AI-powered hacking has exploded into an industrial-scale threat.<\/em> (Guardian<\/a>)
+ New tools are simplifying online crime.<\/em> (MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

2 OpenAI just launched its answer to Claude Mythos
<\/strong>Daybreak patches vulnerabilities before attackers find them. (The Verge<\/a>)
+ Sam Altman said it will \u201ccontinuously secure software.\u201d<\/em> (Gizmodo<\/a>)
+ It will rival Anthropic\u2019s Claude Mythos, which arrived a month ago.<\/em> (BBC<\/a>)
+ OpenAI is allowing wider access to its cyber models than Anthropic.<\/em> (CNBC<\/a>)<\/p>\n

3 Trump is heading to China to spread the gospel of American tech
<\/strong>While taking cues from Beijing\u2019s more stringent approach. (Guardian<\/a>)
+ But investors want Trump and Xi to stay out of AI\u2019s way. <\/em>(Reuters<\/a> $)
+ Elon Musk and Tim Cook are joining him on the trip this week.<\/em> (BBC<\/a>)<\/p>\n

4 Ilya Sutskever has testified on Sam Altman\u2019s \u201cpattern of lying\u201d
<\/strong>OpenAI co-founder Sutskever took the stand in the Altman v. Musk trial. (BI<\/a>)
+ He said he spent a year gathering proof of Altman\u2019s dishonesty. <\/em>(Reuters<\/a> $)
+ But he also added to OpenAI\u2019s defense.<\/em> (Wired<\/a> $)
+ While Satya Nadella called attempts to remove Altman \u201camateur city.\u201d<\/em> (FT<\/a> $)
+ Here\u2019s what happened last week in the trial.<\/em> (MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

5 A new hantavirus vaccine is in the works<\/strong>
Moderna and Korea University are developing an mRNA vaccine. (Wired<\/a> $)
+ Here\u2019s what you need to know about the cruise ship outbreak. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

6 Texas has sued Netflix over alleged data harvesting and \u201caddictive\u201d design
<\/strong>AG Ken Paxton accuses Netflix of secretly collecting and selling user data. (Quartz<\/a>)
+ And spying on children while deliberately fostering addiction.<\/em> (Guardian<\/a>)<\/p>\n

7 A data center guzzled 30 million gallons of water\u2014and no one noticed
<\/strong>The curious case serves as a warning for other data center projects. (Ars Technica<\/a>)<\/p>\n

8 Europe is reportedly selling spyware to human rights abusers
<\/strong>EU states allegedly sold the tech to countries violating rights. (Bloomberg<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

9 The US government\u2019s AI vetting announcement has mysteriously vanished
<\/strong>It had detailed a security test agreement with Google, xAI, and Microsoft. (Gizmodo<\/a>)<\/p>\n

10 Amazon staff are using AI for pointless tasks just to inflate usage scores
<\/strong>In a bid to impress managers. (FT<\/a> $)
<\/strong>+ An AI expert says we should stop using AI so much.<\/em> (MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n


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

\u201cThis is like the cheating husband complaining about the cheating wife.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u2014Anupam Chander, a professor of law and technology at Georgetown Law School, tells the New York Times<\/a> that Elon Musk\u2019s hypocrisy over OpenAI becoming a for-profit company will undermine his courtroom battle with Sam Altman.<\/p>\n

One More Thing<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/p>\n
STUART BRADFORD<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n


How sounds can turn us on to the wonders of the universe<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/p>\n

For decades, astronomy has relied on visual information to make sense of the cosmos: images, charts, and graphs. Now, some researchers are trying something different: listening to the universe.<\/p>\n

Using sonification, the process of turning information into sound, they\u2019re helping blind and visually impaired researchers explore the cosmos\u2014and even uncover patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed. The approach is spreading beyond astronomy into fields like climate science, navigation, and education.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Discover how sound could make science more accessible\u2014and even more revealing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014Corey S. Powell<\/em><\/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>.)<\/em><\/p>\n

+ This musical mashup<\/a> beautifully blends LCD Soundsystem with Twin Peaks<\/em>.
+ Match your speculative ideas to sci-fi stories with the Extrapolated Futures Archive<\/a>.
+ A live-action animation Coyote vs. ACME<\/em> is coming soon\u2014and the first trailer just dropped<\/a>.
+ Want to surf elsewhere in the galaxy? Here\u2019s what it would be like to catch waves on distant planets<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is today\u2019s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter […]<\/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-22742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22742","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=22742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22742\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideainthebox.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}