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.
Housing is an election issue. But the US sucks at it.
Ahead of abortion access, ahead of immigration, and way ahead of climate change, US voters under 30 are most concerned about one issue: housing affordability. And it’s not just young voters who say soaring rents and eye-watering home sale prices are among their top worries. For the first time in recent memory, the cost of housing could be a major factor in the presidential election.
It’s not hard to see why. From the beginning of the pandemic to early 2024, US home prices rose by 47%. In large swaths of the country, buying a home is no longer a possibility even for those with middle-class incomes.
Permitting delays and strict zoning rules create huge obstacles to building more and faster—as do other widely recognized issues, like the political power of NIMBY activists across the country and an ongoing shortage of skilled workers. But there is also another, less talked-about problem: We’re not very efficient at building, and we seem somehow to be getting worse. Read the full story.
—David Rotman
Inside a fusion energy facility
—Casey Crownhart
On an overcast day in early October, I picked up a rental car and drove to Devens, Massachusetts, to visit a hole in the ground.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems has raised over $2 billion in funding since it spun out of MIT in 2018, all in service of building the first commercial fusion reactor. The plan is to have it operating by 2026.
I visited the company’s site recently to check in on progress. Things are starting to come together and, looking around the site, I found it becoming easier to imagine a future that could actually include fusion energy. But there’s still a lot of work left to do. 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.
MIT Technology Review Narrated: How gamification took over the world
Instead of liberating us from drudgery and maximizing our potential, gamification has turned out to be just another tool for coercion, distraction, and control. Why did we fall for it?
This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast. In partnership with News Over Audio, we’ll be making a selection of our stories available, each one read by a professional voice actor. You’ll be able to listen to them on the go or download them to listen to offline.
We’re publishing a new story each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, including some taken from our most recent print magazine.
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 Bird flu has been found in a pig in the US for the first time
The USDA says it’s not cause for panic. But it’s certainly cause for concern. (Reuters)
+ Why virologists are getting increasingly nervous about bird flu. (MIT Technology Review)
2 Elon Musk has turned X into a political weapon
This is what $44 billion bought him: the ability to flood the zone with falsehoods during an election. (The Atlantic $)
+ X’s crowdsourced fact-checking program is falling woefully short. (WP $)
+ And it’s not just X. YouTube is full of election conspiracy content too. (NYT $)
+ Spare a thought for the election officials who have to navigate this mess. (NPR)
3 Europe’s big tech hawks are nervously eyeing the US election
Biden was an ally in their efforts to crack down. Either of his potential successors look like a less sure bet. (Wired $)
+ Attendees regularly fail to disclose their links to big tech at EU events. (The Guardian)
4 The AI boom is being powered by concrete
It’s a major ingredient for data centers and the power plants being built to serve them—and a climate disaster. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ How electricity could help tackle a surprising climate villain. (MIT Technology Review)
5 What makes human brains so special? 
Much of the answer is still a mystery—but researchers are uncovering more and more promising leads. (Nature)
+ Tech that measures our brainwaves is 100 years old. How will we be using it 100 years from now? (MIT Technology Review)
6 Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robot is getting much more capable
If its latest video, in which it autonomously picks up and moves car parts, is anything to go by. (TechCrunch)
+ A skeptic’s guide to humanoid-robot videos. (MIT Technology Review)
7 Alexa desperately needs a revamp
The voice assistant was launched 10 years ago, and it’s been disappointing us ever since. (The Verge)
8 We’re sick of algorithms recommending us stuff
Lots of people are keen to turn back to guidance from other humans. (New Yorker $)
+ If you’re one of them, I have bad news: AI is going to make the problem much worse. (Fortune $)
9 Russia fined Google $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
That’s more money than exists on Earth but sure, don’t let that stop you. (The Register)
10 What is going on with Mark Zuckerberg recently
He’s using clothes to rebrand himself and… it’s kinda working?! (Slate)
Quote of the day
“It’s what happens when you let a bunch of grifters take over.”
—A Trumpworld source explains to Wired why Donald Trump’s ground campaign in Michigan is so chaotic.
A day in the life of a Chinese robotaxi driver
July 2022
When Liu Yang started his current job, he found it hard to go back to driving his own car: “I instinctively went for the passenger seat. Or when I was driving, I would expect the car to brake by itself,” says the 33-year-old Beijing native, who joined the Chinese tech giant Baidu in January 2021 as a robotaxi driver.
Liu is one of the hundreds of safety operators employed by Baidu, “driving” five days a week in Shougang Park. But despite having only worked for the company for 19 months, he already has to think about his next career move, as his job will likely be eliminated within a few years. Read the full story.
—Zeyi Yang
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 tweet ’em at me.)
+ Happy Halloween! Check out some of the best spine-chilling classic novels.
+ If scary movies are more your jam, I’ve still got you covered.
+ These photo montages of music fans outside concerts are incredible.
+ Love that this guy went from being terrified of rollercoasters to designing them.
+ You’ll probably never sort your life out. And that’s OK.
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