The Download: Quantum computing for health, and why the world doesn’t recycle more nuclear waste

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.

A $5 million prize awaits proof that quantum computers can solve health care problems 

In a laboratory on the outskirts of Oxford, a quantum computer built from atoms and light awaits its moment. The device is small but powerful—and also very valuable. Infleqtion, the company that owns it, is hoping its abilities will win $5 million at a competition next week. 

The prize will go to the quantum computer that can solve real health care problems that conventional “classical” computers are unable to solve. But there can be only one big winner—if there is a winner at all. Read the full story. 

—Michael Brooks 

Why the world doesn’t recycle more nuclear waste 

There’s still a lot of usable uranium in spent nuclear fuel when it’s pulled out of reactors. Recycling could reduce both the waste and the need to mine new material, but the process is costly, complicated, and not fully efficient. 

Find out why it’s such an issue. —Casey Crownhart 

This story is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday. 

The must-reads 

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

1 The FBI has confirmed it’s buying Americans’ location data  
Director Kash Patel said it’s led to “valuable intelligence.” (Politico) 
+ What AI “remembers” about you is privacy’s next frontier. (MIT Technology Review) 
 
2 The first draft of a federal AI bill has been introduced 
It aims to protect “children, creators, conservatives, and communities.” (Engadget) 
+ A war is brewing over AI regulation in the US. (MIT Technology Review)   

3 Google is pitching itself to the Pentagon as the perfect defense partner 
It’s framing its AI as a safe alternative to OpenAI and Anthropic. (NYT $) 
+ Here’s where OpenAI’s tech could show up in Iran. (MIT Technology Review) 

4 A rogue AI agent at Meta leaked sensitive information to employees 
The exposure lasted for hours before it was contained. (The Information $) 
+ Don’t let AI agent hype get ahead of reality. (MIT Technology Review $) 

5 Sony just removed 135,000 ‘deepfakes’ of its music 
Fraudsters were impersonating the label’s artists on streaming services. (BBC) 
+ AI works better as a collaborator than a creator. (MIT Technology Review) 

6 The EU has backed a ban on nonconsensual sexualized deepfakes 
It has reacted to Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot “nudifying” children. (Bloomberg $) 

7 Two quantum cryptography pioneers have won the Turing Award 
Their encryption method can (theoretically) never be broken. (Quanta) 

8 Gamers are disgusted by Nvidia’s new rendering model  
They’ve labeled it an “AI slop filter.” (The Verge) 

9 The White House has registered the aliens.gov domain 
It’s sparked speculation that Trump’s long-awaited UFO disclosure is imminent. (404 Media) 
+ Meet the new biologists treating LLMs like ETs. (MIT Technology Review) 

10 Silicon Valley has embraced a new buzzword: “taste” 
As a USP amid the deluge of AI-driven recommendations. (The New Yorker $) 

Quote of the day 

“Big tech and China win. The rest of us lose.” 

—Elizabeth Warren gives her take on the Trump administration allowing Nvidia to sell advanced chips to China. 

One More Thing 

Useful quantum computing is inevitable—and increasingly imminent 

Last year, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang jolted the stock market by saying that practical quantum computing is still 15 to 30 years away. He also suggested that those computers would need Nvidia GPUs to function. But Huang’s predictions miss the mark—both on the timeline and the role his company’s technology will play.  

Quantum computing is rapidly converging on utility. And that’s good news, because the hope is that they will be able to perform calculations that no amount of AI or classical computation could ever achieve. Read the full story. 

—Peter Barrett 

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.) 

+ A self-described “mad scientist” has powered a car with vape batteries. 
+ Someone squeezed an Apple Mac Mini inside a classic LEGO computer. 
+ Watch thousands of satellites orbit Earth in real-time with this mesmerizing interactive map. 
+ This grilled wall cheese art looks good enough to eat.