A UK man has been sentenced after pleading guilty to the unauthorized mixing and selling of music CDs, and thus breaking copyright laws. It is 2026.
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June 18, 2026 at 07:44AM
Geoengineering still faces major practical challenges
https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/06/18/1139227/geoengineering-engineering-challenges/
Solar geoengineering is often portrayed as a sort of emergency brake. Something along the lines of Pull in case of climate emergency to scatter light-reflecting particles to bounce sunlight out of the atmosphere and cool the planet.
But it might be less like a simple brake and more like a complicated, entirely unsolved puzzle.
Some researchers are starting to look into how nations or companies would go about trying to cool the planet—and there’s a lot to figure out. My colleague James Temple dug into these engineering challenges in his latest feature story. My biggest takeaway? This all might be a lot harder than I thought.
I’ll admit, I’ve always thought of geoengineering as a relatively low-tech solution. That’s partly because over the years we’ve seen some companies do their own low-cost guerrilla “experiments,” tossing balloons up into the atmosphere and claiming to have made some small dent in climate change.
But to actually actively cool the planet in a significant way, and to make sure we understand exactly what effect we’re having, there’s a lot that researchers still need to learn.
First, there’s the problem of getting up into the atmosphere. Generally, the target for solar geoengineering efforts is the stratosphere, since the air there is drier and more stable, so particles deposited there would stay aloft and move around the planet, lowering temperatures over a wider area and for a longer time.
You can release the particles in balloons, but balloons may not go where you want them to. And at a large scale, you’d be leaving a lot of litter all over the planet. That leaves aircraft, but conventional planes aren’t suited to fly around in the stratosphere. (Commercial aircraft generally fly at around 12 kilometers above the Earth’s surface, while geoengineering would require reaching roughly 20 kilometers.) The air is thinner higher up, so aircraft with massive wings would probably fare better than more conventional designs.
One design, from a startup called Iris Aero, shows just how much rethinking of our current flight technologies might be needed—the plane is almost unsettling in its proportions. Its wings are so long, on a stubby little body. It reminds me of a water strider, those bugs that have super-long legs to scurry around on a pond’s surface.
And that’s just the beginning. There’s also the question of what, exactly, would be best to scatter up in the stratosphere. The idea behind geoengineering comes from volcanoes—after an eruption, sulfuric acid ends up floating around in the atmosphere, and it can temporarily cool the planet. But that chemical is sticky and would be heavy to carry, so scattering some sort of precursor to sulfuric acid would probably be better. Researchers, including some at the University of Chicago, one of the leading institutions in this field, are working to figure out the best formula.
I’m struck by how complicated this turns out to be, and I’m also left with a big question: As research turns from modeling and simulations to the practical aspects of this incredibly controversial technology, what does it mean to be doing this work?
There are major concerns about what effects might come from large-scale attempts to cool the planet. The effects could be positive for some parts of the globe and negative for others. Established weather patterns, like the monsoon season in South Asia, could shift. There are major questions about what the governance for the use of geoengineering should look like, and who gets to decide whether to go ahead.
Experts who champion research in geoengineering often draw a line between a desire to support learning more about the technology and a call to deploy it. Many would argue that we should understand it better, so we can make informed decisions.
But to me, there’s a clear difference between atmospheric modeling and detailed engineering work on an aircraft. If there’s public research that essentially amounts to a set of practical instructions, I can’t help but feel like it could enable any number of individual actors or nations to take geoengineering into their own hands. It also might normalize the idea of using the technology.
Some experts shared concerns along these lines with James, arguing that the shift to practical engineering work requires more oversight. Some called research in this area dangerous.
One alternative perspective I found interesting came from Shuchi Talati, executive director of the nonprofit Alliance for Just Deliberation on Solar Geoengineering.
Rather than further practical research making a slippery slope slipperier, it could have the opposite effect, she told James. “The actual practice of R&D will be a sticky slope, because there will be more real-world problems that come up that we haven’t even thought of yet,” she says. Engineering research could challenge the “idealized notions” of how easy the technology would actually be, she adds.
It’s hard to argue against better understanding potential tools to address climate change. But if we draw a map towards a potential future, it might become difficult to control who follows it.
This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.
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June 18, 2026 at 05:24AM
China Is Forcing EV Makers To Build Batteries That Do Not Catch Fire
https://www.autoblog.com/news/china-is-forcing-ev-makers-to-build-batteries-that-do-not-catch-fire
The Push for Bulletproof Battery Safety
Electric vehicles are dominating global roads and bringing battery safety into the intense spotlight. Automakers are constantly engineering new physical solutions to protect battery packs from catastrophic damage. Toyota recently developed a highly protective method to mount electric vehicle batteries to shield them during severe crashes. Nissan is exploring similar innovations by patenting active battery mounts designed to dynamically absorb physical shocks and road vibrations.
According to a report from CarNewsChina, China is now accelerating this safety push with sweeping national regulations. Starting July 1, 2026, the country will enforce strict new safety standards across its massive electric vehicle market. The rules mandate a physical one-touch power-off switch to immediately disconnect high-voltage systems during a crash. Regulators are also upgrading thermal safety rules to demand absolutely zero fires or explosions during battery failures. Automakers must also pass brutal new underbody impact tests and prove their batteries remain perfectly stable after 300 rapid charging cycles.
Brian Iselin
Industry Consolidation and Solid State Dreams
Solid-state batteries promise to eliminate thermal-runaway concerns through advanced, stable chemistry. Stellantis recently confirmed it will begin testing this next-generation technology in the new Dodge Charger Daytona. Despite this exciting progress, major automakers remain highly doubtful about when solid-state technology will actually reach affordable mass production. This delayed timeline makes aggressive government regulation of current battery designs absolutely necessary.
The new Chinese mandates are expected to heavily consolidate the domestic auto industry. Experts predict the strict rules will curb vicious competition from brands selling low-quality vehicles at cutthroat prices. Industry leaders like CATL and BYD have already confirmed that their current battery systems exceed the upcoming government requirements. While these new safety measures might slightly raise the upfront cost of building a car, they will stabilize the broader market. Standardized safety will improve used vehicle valuations and drastically reduce insurance premiums for owners.
The Lowdown: Engineering Consumer Confidence
Public perception regarding electric vehicle safety is completely distorted by sensationalized news coverage. Recent data and comprehensive studies clearly show that electric vehicles are far less likely to catch fire than traditional internal combustion cars. Gas-powered cars carry tanks of highly flammable liquid and rely on thousands of tiny explosions every minute. Despite this reality, the average buyer naturally fears unfamiliar technology and worries about rare chemical battery fires.
The upcoming regulations in China serve a massive psychological purpose beyond simple engineering improvements. These strict laws are carefully designed to create a sense of calm and reassure hesitant customers. Forcing automakers to build cars with zero fire guarantees proves that the technology is maturing rapidly. These rules reassure the public that electric vehicles are safe and reliable for daily family use. Ultimately, this regulatory pressure will force global manufacturers to further reinforce their technology and build fundamentally better cars.
BYD
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June 17, 2026 at 09:19AM
Why do South Koreans love AI so much?
https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/06/15/1138983/why-do-south-koreans-love-ai-so-much/
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here.
When I landed in Seoul after a grueling 12-hour flight from San Francisco, I walked through an unmanned immigration checkpoint, where a machine scanned my face and passport. On the subway home, people were glued to their phones (powered by flawless 5G even underground), as we raced past platforms lined with LED screens of ads celebrating K-pop idols’ birthdays. When I got off the station in Gangnam, a cartoon-eyed robot on wheels was waiting patiently at a crosswalk to deliver someone’s dinner. Internet cafés dotted the sidewalks, crammed with teenagers playing computer games, maybe hoping to become the next legendary pro gamer.
I stood at a bus stop with interactive touch screens showing real-time bus schedule updates. It will soon become an “AI bus stop,” the Gangnam district announced in June, with a kiosk that answers riders’ questions in multiple languages. The news didn’t surprise me. Having grown up in the city, I’ve watched Seoul transform from a scrappy boomtown into the gleaming tech capital it is today.
South Korea loves AI.
While a public backlash against AI is brewing across the US, South Koreans are optimistic. Only 16% say they are more concerned than excited about AI—the lowest of any of the 25 countries surveyed by the Pew Research Center—while 50% of Americans were more worried than excited. A majority of Koreans use AI every day, either as a sort of personal assistant or to do tasks at work, according to surveys by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism and Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
One of the most wired countries in the world, South Korea loves to street-test every new technology on the block—AI webcomics, virtual K-pop idols, and humanoid monks. And the appetite for experimentation doesn’t stop with ordinary citizens. Government agencies are early adopters too, deploying AI textbooks in schools and AI eldercare robots in welfare centers. South Koreans share a deep conviction that embracing technology is integral to modernizing the country and cementing its place in the global order. Their fascination with AI is just the latest incarnation of that ethos—and it’s making them anxious to stay ahead.
Engineered enthusiasm
All this techno-optimism has largely been engineered by South Korea’s national agenda to make AI a motor of economic growth. “The South Korean government has designated an AI-powered Fourth Industrial Revolution as the country’s path forward and aggressively promoted and invested in it,” says Chihyung Jeon, a professor of science and technology policy at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. “South Koreans have consistently and relentlessly been told by the government about AI’s potential to create a better future.”
As South Korea rose from the ashes of the Korean War, technology lifted the nation from poverty into an economic powerhouse. In the 1970s, South Korea manufactured steel and ships, then semiconductors in the 1980s, broadband in the 1990s, and smartphones in the 2000s. Today, Samsung and SK Hynix supply most of the world’s high-bandwidth memory chips, which power the cutting-edge Nvidia hardware used to train AI models. South Korea’s economy now orbits these two semiconductor giants: The country’s main equity index, Kospi, surged to record highs in 2026, powered by the soaring share prices of both companies, each valued above $1 trillion.
Lee Jae-myung, president of South Korea, has pledged to vault the country into the ranks of the “top three AI powers” alongside the US and China. After taking office in 2025, he launched the Presidential Council on National AI Strategy to help buy massive amounts of computing power and a sovereign AI foundation model project that funds Korean companies to develop homegrown AI models. The government has also supported semiconductor titans, including Samsung and SK Hynix, through generous tax credits and low-interest financing.
South Korea’s policy posture also prioritizes accelerating AI development over safety considerations. In 2024, South Korea’s legislature passed the AI Basic Act, one of the world’s first comprehensive AI laws, to promote AI development and establish light-touch regulatory guardrails. Seventy percent of South Koreans say advancing science and medicine through AI innovation is a bigger priority than protecting industries through regulation, according to the 2026 Stanford AI Index.
All of that effort might be paying off. The same index ranked South Korea as having the third largest number of notable AI models in the world, based on criteria such as state-of-the-art advancements or high citation rates. For many small countries like South Korea, AI is a chance to punch above their weight.
The blind spots
But that single-mindedness can crowd out critical reflection on AI’s broader societal impacts. “Because the national agenda on AI prioritizes economic development,” says Jeon, the professor of science and technology policy, “there isn’t much reflection on the social, political, ethical dimensions of the technology.” In 2025, the South Korean government faced a fierce backlash for rolling out AI textbooks riddled with factual inaccuracies and data privacy risks without testing them first in a pilot program to evaluate how they affect student learning.
And despite their optimism, South Koreans are still worried that AI could displace them from their jobs. After Hyundai announced in January that it will deploy Atlas humanoid robots across its car factories, the Hyundai Motor Group union protested vehemently. “Without labor-management agreement, not a single robot using new technology will be allowed to enter the workplace,” the union said. Sixty-four percent of South Koreans fear AI could displace human labor and exacerbate inequality, although 52% believe it could also increase productivity.
On a recent Friday night in the Seoul Central Market, I went out with my cousins to a pocha, a late-night restaurant that serves fish cakes stacked in neat pyramids. As we clinked our cups of soju cut with beer—the scrappy staple cocktail of every Korean night out—one cousin asked me if I’d asked ChatGPT about my saju, a traditional Korean fortune-telling practice. A 29-year-old insurance agent in Seoul praying for a new job and a boyfriend, she said asking ChatGPT about work and dating was her favorite pastime. She pulled up her phone and punched my birth date into the chatbot.
Addicted to their screens, trapped between unemployment and dead-end jobs, and priced out of marriage and homeownership, 46% of South Koreans in their 20s have used a chatbot to read their fortunes, according to a survey by Korea Gallup.
My cousin said she also asks ChatGPT for tips on trading stocks, dreaming big about making bank on her investment accounts into which she’s been pouring her salary. ChatGPT, she believes, is her portal out of reality into a better future.
Despite how fond she is of the chatbot as her shaman and financial advisor, she fears losing her job to AI. She still uses ChatGPT feverishly at work, as all her coworkers do, afraid of falling behind.
“I sometimes fear AI, but for now, it’s just so useful,” she said.
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June 15, 2026 at 02:09PM
Samsung Heavy Industries recruits Greek shipowner and Supermicro to bring 50MW floating AI data centers to market — can be powered by solid oxide fuel cells running on liquefied natural gas
Besides Samsung Heavy, Japan’s MOL is also building a 73 MW floating data center with Karpowership for a 2027 deployment.
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June 10, 2026 at 09:46AM
This Free Tool Can Help Spot AI Slop in Spotify and Apple Music Playlists
AI-generated songs have been flooding music streaming platforms in recent years, and apparently, it’s pretty difficult for people to tell the difference between music made by humans and tracks made by AI.
Now, Deezer is offering a way to check.
The French streaming platform announced Thursday that it is making its AI music detection tool available for free to users of 20 major streaming services, including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and Amazon Music. The tool lets users scan their playlists to see which tracks may have been generated by AI.
“A vast majority of people want to know if AI music is being recommended to them and our data show that nearly half of the users joining Deezer from another platform have AI tracks in their playlists. We’re expecting our AI music detector to be an eye-opening experience for listeners around the world,” said Deezer CEO Alexis Lanternier in a press release.
To use Deezer’s tool, users can go to this link, choose their streaming service, connect their account, and agree to let Deezer scan their playlists.
The news comes as AI-generated content, including videos and songs, has taken over the internet. Deezer says it receives nearly 75,000 AI-generated tracks every day, making up more than 44% of the music uploaded daily to its platform.
Some AI-generated songs have even broken through on the charts. Last November, the AI-generated song “Walk My Walk” by Breaking Rust made headlines after topping Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart. More recently, in April, “Celebrate Me” by the AI persona IngaRose reached the number one spot on the U.S. iTunes chart.
Deezer first started using its detection tool on its own platform at the beginning of 2025 to label AI-generated tracks. The company has also made the detection tool available commercially to other music companies.
The streamer says more than 13 million AI-generated tracks were detected and tagged on the platform in 2025. Additionally, the company says that 43% of people joining Deezer from other streaming platforms already had AI music in their playlists.
To understand people’s attitudes toward AI music, the company also commissioned a survey last year with Ipsos across eight countries and 9,000 respondents. The survey found that 97% of respondents couldn’t tell the difference between fully AI-generated music and human-made music in a blind test. It also found that 80% agreed that fully AI-generated music should be clearly labeled for listeners.
As AI music becomes more common online, not every streaming platform is handling the issue the same way.
Spotify, for example, announced in April that it would start adding “Verified by Spotify” badges to artist profiles that meet the platform’s criteria for authenticity and trust.
The move appears aimed at helping listeners avoid fake artist profiles, including AI-generated music meant to be streamed artificially by bots.
According to Deezer, AI-generated music accounts for only between 1% and 3% of streams on its platform. But the company says up to 85% of streams from fully AI-generated tracks in 2025 were fraudulent.
Still, Spotify appears to be embracing AI in other ways. Just last month, the company announced a deal with Universal Music Group that will let Premium users create AI-generated covers and remixes of songs from participating artists.
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June 11, 2026 at 12:37PM
The Bandwidth Wars: 30 Years of Internet Traffic History
https://www.geeksaresexy.net/2026/06/05/the-bandwidth-wars-30-years-of-internet-traffic-history/
Remember when the biggest thing on the internet was downloading a file over FTP and praying nobody picked up the phone? This animated graph tracks the evolution of internet traffic from 1994 to 2026, from bulletin boards, Usenet, and IRC chat rooms to a world dominated by TikTok videos, YouTube, Netflix, and an army of AI scraping bots.
One of the biggest surprises? In 1994, all internet traffic combined was measured in mere thousands of gigabytes per month. By 2026, short-form video alone is consuming hundreds of billions of gigabytes every month. The future arrived… and it’s mostly videos of people dancing, cats doing weird things, and robots reading the entire internet.
Watch the graph and enjoy 30 years of the internet speedrunning its own evolution.
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June 5, 2026 at 09:34AM