The Download: inside a deepfake marketplace, and EV batteries’ future

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.

Inside the marketplace powering bespoke AI deepfakes of real women

Civitai—an online marketplace for buying and selling AI-generated content, backed by the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz—is 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.

The study, from researchers at Stanford and Indiana University, looked at people’s requests for content on the site, called “bounties.” The researchers found that between mid-2023 and the end of 2024, most bounties asked for animated content—but a significant portion were for deepfakes of real people, and 90% of these deepfake requests targeted women. Read the full story.

—James O’Donnell

What’s next for EV batteries in 2026

Demand for electric vehicles and the batteries that power them has never been hotter.

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.)

As EVs become increasingly common on the roads, the battery world is growing too. Here’s what’s coming next for EV batteries in 2026 and beyond.

—Casey Crownhart

This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s What’s Next series, which examines industries, trends, and technologies to give you a first look at the future. You can read the rest of them here.

TR10: Base-edited baby

Kyle “KJ” 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.

The team set to work developing a tailored treatment using base editing—a form of CRISPR that can correct genetic “misspellings” 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.

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—one 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, and check out the rest of the list.

The must-reads

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

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

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

3 Capgemini is selling its unit linked to ICE
After the French government asked it to clarify its work for the agency. (Bloomberg $) 
+ The company has signed $12.2mn in contracts under the Trump administration. (FT $)
+ Here’s how to film ICE activities as safely as possible. (Wired $)

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

5 Indonesia has reversed its ban on xAI’s Grok
After it announced plans to improve its compliance with the country’s laws. (Reuters)
+ Indonesia maintains a strict stance against pornographic content. (NYT $)
+ Malaysia and the Philippines have also lifted bans on the chatbot. (TechCrunch)

6 Don’t expect to hitch a ride on a Blue Origin rocket anytime soon
Jeff Bezos’ venture won’t be taking tourists into space for at least two years. (NYT $)
+ Artemis II astronauts are due to set off for the moon soon. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ Commercial space stations are on our list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2026. (MIT Technology Review)

7 America’s push for high-speed internet is under threat
There aren’t enough skilled workers to meet record demand. (WSJ $)

8 Can AI help us grieve better?
A growing cluster of companies are trying to find out. (The Atlantic $)
+ Technology that lets us “speak” to our dead relatives has arrived. Are we ready? (MIT Technology Review)

9 How to fight future insect infestations
A certain species of fungus could play a key role. (Ars Technica)
+ How do fungi communicate? (MIT Technology Review)

10 What a robot-made latte tastes like, according to a former barista
Damn fine, apparently. (The Verge)

Quote of the day

 “It feels like a wild bison rampaging around in my computer.”

—A user who signed up to AI agent Moltbot remarks on the bot’s unpredictable behavior, Rest of World reports.

One more thing

How Wi-Fi sensing became usable tech

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’s mostly been eclipsed by other technologies, like ultra-wideband radar. 

Despite that, Wi-Fi sensing hasn’t gone away. Instead, it has quietly become available in millions of homes, supported by leading internet service providers, smart-home companies, and chip manufacturers.

Soon it could be invisibly monitoring our day-to-day movements for all sorts of surprising—and sometimes alarming—purposes. Read the full story. 

—Meg Duff

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.)

+ These intrepid Scottish bakers created the largest ever Empire biscuit (a classic shortbread cookie covered in icing)
+ My, what big tentacles you have!
+ If you’ve been feeling like you’re stuck in a rut lately, this advice could be exactly what you need to overcome it.
+ These works of psychedelic horror are guaranteed to send a shiver down your spine.