The Download: a blockchain enigma, and the algorithms governing our lives

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.

Welcome to the dark side of crypto’s permissionless dream

Jean-Paul Thorbjornsen, an Australian man in his mid-30s, with a rural Catholic upbringing, is a founder of THORChain, a blockchain through which users can swap one cryptocurrency for another and earn fees from making those swaps.

THORChain is permissionless, so anyone can use it without getting prior approval from a centralized authority. As a decentralized network, the blockchain is built and run by operators located across the globe. During its early days, Thorbjornsen himself hid behind the pseudonym “leena” and used an AI-generated female image as his avatar. But around March 2024, he revealed his true identity as the mind behind the blockchain. More or less.

If there is a central question around THORChain, it is this: Exactly who is responsible for its operations? It matters because in January last year, its users lost more than $200 million worth of their cryptocurrency in US dollars after THORChain transactions and accounts were frozen by a singular admin override, which users believed was not supposed to be possible given the decentralized structure.

Thorbjornsen insists THORChain is helping realize bitcoin’s original purpose of enabling anyone to transact freely outside the reach of purportedly corrupt governments. Yet the network’s problems suggest that an alternative financial system might not be much better. Read the full story.

—Jessica Klein

The robots who predict the future

To be human is, fundamentally, to be a forecaster. Occasionally a pretty good one. Trying to see the future, whether through the lens of past experience or the logic of cause and effect, has helped us hunt, avoid being hunted, plant crops, forge social bonds, and in general survive in a world that does not prioritize our survival.

Today, we are awash in a sea of predictions so vast and unrelenting that most of us barely even register them. People’s desire for reliable forecasting is understandable. Still, nobody signed up for an omnipresent, algorithmic oracle mediating every aspect of their life. A trio of new books tries to make sense of our future-­focused world—how we got here, and what this change means. Each has its own prescriptions for navigating this new reality, but they all agree on one thing: Predictions are ultimately about power and control. Read the full story.

—Bryan Gardiner

These stories are both from the next print issue of MIT Technology Review magazine, which is all about crime. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land. 

MIT Technology Review Narrated: Stratospheric internet could finally start taking off this year

Today, an estimated 2.2 billion people still have either limited or no access to the internet, largely because they live in remote places. But that number could drop this year, thanks to tests of stratospheric airships, uncrewed aircraft, and other high-altitude platforms for internet delivery.

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.

The must-reads

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

1 Mark Zuckerberg is due to give evidence in a major social media addiction trial
He’ll face questioning over whether Meta does enough to protect young users. (CNN)

2 Perplexity has abandoned ads inside its chatbot responses
Because advertising can erode trust in AI, it reasons. (FT $)
+ It’s a pretty big U-turn considering its previous stance. (The Verge)

3 The US is being battered by a range of wild weather
From critical wildfire risks in some states, to winter storms in others. (WP $)

4 Microsoft plans to spend $50 billion bringing AI to the Global South by 2030
India is one of the fastest growing markets for the technology. (Reuters)
+ One native startup has announced a new AI model for 22 Indian languages. (Bloomberg $)
+ Inside India’s scramble for AI independence. (MIT Technology Review)

5 AI-powered private schools are failing students
Models are being used to generate faulty lesson plans. (404 Media)

6 Land owners are selling out to data center builders
Land previously earmarked for housing is being sold off to the highest bidder. (WSJ $)

7 Tesla has agreed to stop using the term “autopilot” in California
The DMV had previously also questioned its use of “Full Self-Driving.” (SF Chronicle $)

8 A new weight-loss drug may work a little too well
Participants in a trial are dropping out at a much higher rate than normal. (NYT $)
+ Intermittent fasting may not help us to shed the pounds after all. (New Scientist $)
+ What we still don’t know about weight-loss drugs. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Is anyone still using Grindr?
Bots and AI have rendered it virtually unusable for some people. (Vox)

10 How to hack your dreams
Neuroscientists are figuring out new ways to influence what we dream about. (New Scientist $)
+ I taught myself to lucid dream. You can too. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“I voted for this administration and didn’t really think about [AI] until it started to affect me.”

—Lisa Garrett, a grandmother living in the city of Independence, Missouri, reflects on the Trump administration’s decision to embrace AI, the Financial Times reports.

One more thing

Hydrogen trains could revolutionize how Americans get around

Like a mirage speeding across the dusty desert outside Pueblo, Colorado, the first hydrogen-fuel-cell passenger train in the United States is getting warmed up on its test track. It will soon be shipped to Southern California, where it is slated to carry riders on San Bernardino County’s Arrow commuter rail service before the end of the year.

The best way to decarbonize railroads is the subject of growing debate among regulators, industry, and activists. The debate is partly technological, revolving around whether hydrogen fuel cells, batteries, or overhead electric wires offer the best performance for different railroad situations. But it’s also political: a question of the extent to which decarbonization can, or should, usher in a broader transformation of rail transportation.

In the insular world of railroading, this hydrogen-powered train is a Rorschach test. To some, it represents the future of rail transportation. To others, it looks like a big, shiny distraction. Read the full story.

—Benjamin Schneider

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.)

+ How to quickly declutter your home by being brutally honest with yourself.
+ The filming locations for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms are pretty breathtaking.
+ Why a unicyclist decided to start juggling flaming torches in the middle of a Colorado pedestrian crossing is anyone guess, but good luck to him.
+ How pepper took over the world (deservedly)