The Download: greener steel, and what 2025 holds for climate tech

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

The world’s first industrial-scale plant for green steel promises a cleaner future

As of 2023, nearly 2 billion metric tons of steel were being produced annually, enough to cover Manhattan in a layer more than 13 feet thick.

Making this metal produces a huge amount of carbon dioxide. Overall, steelmaking accounts for around 8% of the world’s carbon emissions—one of the largest industrial emitters and far more than such sources as aviation.

A handful of groups and companies are now making serious progress toward low- or zero-emission steel. Among them, the Swedish company Stegra stands out. The startup is currently building the first industrial-scale plant in the world to make green steel. But can it deliver on its promises? Read the full story.

—Douglas Main

Green steel is one of our 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2025, MIT Technology Review’s annual list of tech to watch. Check out the rest of the list, and cast your vote for the honorary 11th breakthrough.

2025 is a critical year for climate tech

—Casey Crownhart

I love the fresh start that comes with a new year. And one thing adding a boost to my January is our newest list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies.

As I was looking over the finished list this week, I was struck by something: While there are some entries from other fields that are three or even five years away, all the climate items are either newly commercially available or just about to be. It’s certainly apt, because this year in particular seems to be bringing a new urgency to the fight against climate change. It’s time for these technologies to grow up and get out there. Read the full story.

This story is from The Spark, our weekly climate and energy newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.

A New York legislator wants to pick up the pieces of the dead California AI bill

The first Democrat in New York history with a computer science background wants to revive some of the ideas behind the failed California AI safety bill, SB 1047, with a new version in his state that would regulate the most advanced AI models.

Assembly member Alex Bores hopes his bill, currently an unpublished draft that MIT Technology Review has seen, will address many of the concerns that blocked SB 1047 from passing into law last year. Read the full story.

—Scott J Mulligan

MIT Technology Review Narrated: How covid conspiracy theories led to an alarming resurgence in AIDS denialism

Podcaster Joe Rogan, former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr, and football quarterback Aaron Rodgers are all helping revive AIDS denialism—a false collection of theories arguing either that HIV doesn’t cause AIDS or that there’s no such thing as HIV at all. 

These ideas were initially promoted back in the 1980s and ’90s but fell out of favor, as more and more evidence stacked up against them, and as more people with HIV and AIDS started living longer lives thanks to effective new treatments. But then coronavirus arrived.

This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we’re publishing each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it’s released.

Ask our journalists anything!

Do you have questions about emerging technologies? Well, we’ve got answers. MIT Technology Review’s science and tech journalists are hosting an AMA on Reddit tomorrow at 12 pm ET. Submit your questions now!

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 Wildfires are sweeping through Los Angeles
Unusually strong winds and dry weather are accelerating multiple fires around the city. (Vox)
+ While California is no stranger to wildfires, these are particularly awful. (The Atlantic $)
+ Five people are known to have died, and thousands have lost their homes.(NY Mag $)
+ The quest to build wildfire-resistant homes. (MIT Technology Review)

2 AI can now predict how the genes inside a cell will drive its behavior
Scientists are hopeful it could usher in cell-specific therapies to fight genetic diseases. (WP $)
+ How AI can help us understand how cells work—and help cure diseases. (MIT Technology Review)

3 The Biden administration is planning a further chips crackdown
One of its final acts will be a push to prevent sales of chips to China and Russia. (Bloomberg $)
+ A group of tech representatives is begging the US government to reconsider. (Reuters)

4 Elon Musk’s DOGE division wants to slash $2 trillion in federal spending
But even he admits it’s a ridiculously ambitious goal. (WSJ $)
+ He reckons he might be able to cut half that amount. (NBC News)

5 Meta exempted its top advertisers from content moderation processes
It agreed to suppress standard testing for high spenders. (FT $)
+ Mark Zuckerberg appears to be following X’s playbook. (Wired $)
+ Maybe the two platforms aren’t so different after all. (The Atlantic $)

6 How one teenager embarked on a nationwide swatting spree
Alan Filion’s false shooting calls sent police into hundreds of schools across the US. (Wired $)

7 Blue Origin is limbering up to launch its new Glenn rocket
In the company’s very first flight. (New Scientist $)
+ If successful, the flight could prove Blue Origin’s worthiness as a SpaceX rival. (The Register)

8 Grok could be getting an ‘unhinged mode’
Whatever that means. (TechCrunch)
+ X’s chatbot was one of the biggest AI flops of 2024. (MIT Technology Review)

9 The secret to scaling quantum computing? Fiber optic cables  
Mixing quantum data with regular ole internet gigabits is one solution. (IEEE Spectrum)

10 This robot vacuum has limbs
All the better to clean your home with. (The Verge)
+ A Roomba recorded a woman on the toilet. How did screenshots end up on Facebook? (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“I voted for Trump—I didn’t vote for Elon.”

—Preston Parra, chairman of the pro-Trump Conservative PAC, expresses his frustration with Elon Musk’s escalating involvement in US politics to the New York Times.

The big story

The weeds are winning

October 2024

Since the 1980s, more and more plants have evolved to become immune to herbicides. This threatens to decrease yields, and in extreme cases can wipe out whole fields.

At worst, it can even drive farmers out of business. It’s the agricultural equivalent of antibiotic resistance, and it keeps getting worse. Agriculture needs to embrace a diversity of weed control practices. But that’s much easier said than done. Read the full story.

—Douglas Main

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)

+ Andrew McCarthy has taken more than 90,000 pictures of the sun, which is pretty amazing.
+ Science’s most famous dogs? Yes please.
+ What better time to reorganize your kitchen cupboards than at the start of the new year?
+ The Robbie Williams biopic Better Man is completely bonkers—and a whole lot of fun.