The Download: storing nuclear waste and orchestrating agents

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. It’s time to make a plan for nuclear waste Today, nuclear energy enjoys rare support across the political spectrum. Public approval has spiked, and Big Tech is throwing money around to meet rising electricity demand. That newfound interest is exactly why it’s time to talk about an old problem: nuclear waste.In the US, nuclear reactors produce about 2,000 metric tons of high-level waste each year—and there’s nowhere to put it. Now, the need for a permanent storage solution is becoming urgent. Here’s what’s at stake. —Casey Crownhart This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday. Orchestrated agents are coming for white-collar work When people say AI will transform industries, what they have in mind—whether they know it or not—are AI agents. ChatGPT showed AI can talk. But to change the world, it needs to do stuff. The real power comes when agents work as teams, coordinating multiple roles to tackle complex tasks. Apps like Codex and Claude Cowork offer a glimpse of this shift, bringing multi-agent general-purpose productivity tools. In theory, networks of AI agents could do to white-collar knowledge work what assembly lines did to manufacturing. That’s the vision. But as agents move into real-world systems, the risks grow too. Read the full story. —Will Douglas Heaven Agent Orchestration is one of the 10 Things That Matter in AI Right Now, MIT Technology Review’s guide to what’s really worth your attention in the busy, buzzy world of AI. We’re unpacking one item from the list each day here in The Download, so stay tuned. MIT Technology Review Narrated: no one’s sure if synthetic mirror life will kill us all In February 2019, a group of scientists proposed a high-risk, cutting-edge, irresistibly exciting idea that the National Science Foundation should fund: making “mirror” bacteria. These lab-created microbes would be organized like ordinary bacteria, but their proteins and sugars would be mirror images of those found in nature. Researchers believed they could reveal new insights into building cells, designing drugs, and even the origins of life. But now, many of them have reversed course. They’ve become convinced that mirror organisms could trigger a catastrophic event threatening every form of life on Earth. Find out why. —Stephen Ornes This is our latest story to be turned into an MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish 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 Elon Musk says Sam Altman “stole a charity” at the OpenAI trialMusk testified for the first time yesterday in the landmark legal showdown. (FT $)+ He said OpenAI was founded as a non-profit to avoid a “Terminator outcome.” (Wired $)+ And claimed he came up with the idea for the company. (Reuters $)+ The trial could upend the global AI race. (MIT Technology Review) 2 The White House has plans to bypass Anthropic’s blacklistingIt’s drafting guidance to sidestep the supply-chain risk designation. (Axios)+ The White House is also meeting other tech firms to discuss AI risks. (Politico)+ The Pentagon’s culture war against Anthropic has backfired. (MIT Technology Review) 3 OpenAI is tightening ties with Amazon after retreating from MicrosoftAWS customers are getting extra access to OpenAI systems. (NBC News)+ While OpenAI gets new users and cloud-computing capabilities. (CNBC) 4 AI bots told scientists how to create biological weaponsAnd unleash them in public spaces. (NYT $)+ AI will change war forever. (MIT Technology Review) 5 China has suspended robotaxi license