This is today’s edition The download, Our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.
Google’s new Project Astra could be generative AI’s killer app
Google DeepMind has announced an impressive grab bag of new products and prototypes that could see it reclaim its lead in the race to turn generative artificial intelligence into a mass-market concern.
Top billing goes to Gemini 2.0—the latest iteration of Google DeepMind’s family of multimodal large language modelsNow redesigned around controllability agents—and a new version of Project Astra, the experimental everything that the company teased at Google I/O in May.
Margins for top-end models like Gemini 2.0 and rival labs like OpenAI and Anthropic are now slim. These days, advances in big language models are less about how good they are and more about what you can do with them. And that’s where agents come in.
MIT Technology Review tried out the Astra in a closed-door live demo last week. It gave us a hint of what was to come. Learn more in the full story.
-Will Douglas Haven
China has banned the export of some rare minerals to the US. Things can get even more messy.
-Casey Crownheart
I’ve thought more about gallium and germanium in the past week than ever before (and probably more than anyone ever should).
China banned exports of that material to the US last week and imposed restrictions on others. The move is just the latest drama in escalating trade tensions between the two countries.
While the new export ban could have significant economic consequences, this could be just the beginning. China is a powerhouse, and not just in that particular material—it’s also a juggernaut in clean energy, and especially in battery supply chains. So what comes next could have significant consequences for EVs and climate action more broadly. 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.
Must read
I’ve scoured the internet to find you today’s funniest/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 It looks like 2024 will be the warmest year on record
But average temperature is only one way of assessing our warming world. (The new scientist $)
+ The first few months of 2025 are also likely to be warmer than average. (Reuters)
+ U.S. Climate policy is about to take a sharp turn. (MIT Technology Review)
2 Meta has donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund
In an attempt to strengthen their previously fractured relationship. (WSJ $)
+ Mark Zuckerberg isn’t the only tech guy seeking the ear of the president-elect. (internal $)
3 How China Secretly Repatriates Uighurs
Even the United Nations seems powerless to stop it. (WP $)
+ Uighurs outside China are shocked. Now they are starting to talk about it. (MIT Technology Review)
4 How Big Tech Decides When to Scrub a User’s Digital Footprint
Murder suspect Luigi Mangione’s Instagram has been taken down—but his Goodreads has not. (Now $)
+ Why it’s dangerous to treat public online accounts as the whole story. (NY Mag $)
5 Russia-backed hackers targeted Ukraine’s military using criminal tools
That makes it more difficult to find out who did it. (TechCrunch)
6 What Cruise’s Exit Means for the Rest of the Robotaxis Industry
Automakers are getting frustrated waiting for the technology to mature. (The Verge)
+ Cruise will instead focus on developing fully autonomous personal vehicles. (Now $)
7 Researching dangerous pathogens is extremely high stakes
The potential for abuse worries some researchers that we shouldn’t be undertaking it at all. (Underdark Magazine)
+ Meet the scientist at the center of the Covid lab leak controversy. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Ultramagnetism could be the next big thing in computing
It will lead to faster, more reliable electronic devices. (FT $)
9 Why Some People Need Less Sleep
Gene mutations hold at least some of the answers. (A well-known magazine)
+ Babies spend most of their time sleeping. New technologies are beginning to reveal why. (MIT Technology Review)
10 Inside the Creeping Normalization of AI Movies
The world’s biggest TV producer wants to make movies for people who are too lazy to change channels. (404 media)
+ Surprisingly, it will also push targeted ads. (Ars Technica)
+ How AI-generated video is changing film. (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“They’ve made them martyrs for all the trouble with their own insurance companies.”
– Felipe Rodriguez, assistant professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, explains why murder suspect Luigi Mangione is being lionized online Reuters.
Big story
Why AI Can Eat Quantum Computing’s Lunch
Tech companies have been investing billions of dollars in quantum computers for years. They are expected to be game changers for fields as diverse as finance, drug discovery and logistics.
But while the field struggles with the realities of difficult quantum hardware, another challenger is moving into some of these most promising use cases. AI is now being applied to fundamental physics, chemistry, and materials science in ways that suggest the supposed home turf of quantum computing may not be so safe after all. Read the full story.
– Ad Gent
We can still have good things
A place for relaxation, fun and distraction to brighten your day. (Any ideas? Drop me a line Or Tweet them at me.)
+ Working life getting you down? Of these pictures Office discomfort You’ll feel much better (or worse—thanks Will!).
+ Gen Z are actually documenting their lives Digital cameraApparently. 
+ If you believe that Alan McMasters invented the first Electric bread toasterI am sorry to inform you that you have fallen for an elaborate online scam.
+ The case for better The Turing Test For AI-generated art.
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