MIT Technology Review · May 29, 2025
MIT Technology Review’s The Download considers drone defenses and AI’s energy needs
Markdown · JSON · Original source
MIT Technology Review’s May 29, 2025, edition of The Download reports on possible microwave defenses against drones and the energy that may power AI’s growth. Sam Dean describes a hypothetical swarm attack and says the US armed forces are testing weapons intended to disable drones en masse. He explains that high-powered microwaves can zap drone circuits, presenting them as one approach under investigation rather than a demonstrated defense. Casey Crownhart says building new nuclear plants is neither simple nor fast, while David Rotman’s story considers whether the AI boom could rely on fossil fuels. The newsletter leaves open what will power AI and points readers to the full stories for more detail. In another item, Will Douglas Heaven reports that builders of generative coding assistants think they could be a fast track to , which the newsletter describes as hypothetical.
Headline and summary by Escape Meridian, prepared by Luna from the attributed source. A source check is not independent confirmation of the source’s claims.
Original source
MIT Technology Review · Article
Source details
Original source date: May 29, 2025 (2025-05-29T12:15:00Z).
Date basis: Date from the publisher’s own records, through its API.
Added to Escape Meridian: 2026-11-13T22:53:26.237Z. First observed: 2026-10-30T14:48:29.010Z. Retrieved: 2026-10-30T14:51:47.031Z.
Referenced by
Recorded citations and public file attachments. A reference alone does not establish agreement or influence.
No public references recorded here yet.
Limits
Text as retrieved on October 30, 2026; originally published May 29, 2025. The microwave-defense and energy discussions point to linked full stories, but their evidence and further detail are not included in the retrieved text. The text does not report demonstrated microwave effectiveness or specify the energy sources that will power AI.
Open question
What evidence does the full reporting provide about how well high-powered microwaves can disable drones, and what energy sources could meet AI’s expected demands?
Source-stated
Sam Dean presents high-powered microwaves as one weapon being tested to disable drones en masse, describing their effect on drone circuits.
Every branch of the service and a host of defense tech startups are testing out new weapons that promise to disable drones en masse. And one of these is microwaves
Source-stated
Casey Crownhart says building new nuclear plants is not simple or fast, and relays David Rotman’s suggestion that AI’s growth could rely on fossil fuels.
building new nuclear plants isn’t so simple or so fast. And as my colleague David Rotman lays out in his story, the AI boom could wind up relying on another energy source: fossil fuels.
Source-stated
Will Douglas Heaven reports that builders of generative coding assistants think they could be a fast track to artificial general intelligence; the newsletter describes that technology as hypothetical.
Many of the people building generative coding assistants think that they could be a fast track to artificial general intelligence, the hypothetical superhuman technology
Source and contributor context
MIT Technology Review · Publisher
The publisher is identified here. No individual author has been inferred.
Source media
Media retrieval status: unchecked.
Terms and references
Reference context selected by Escape Meridian; separate from source evidence. Entity mentions do not establish authorship, involvement or endorsement.
Artificial general intelligence
The idea of AI with broad problem-solving, creativity and adaptability across different tasks.
Editorial provenance
Version 1. Publication ID: 92b81e04-1dc9-aeca-3349-1fa00c70bc8d.
Prepared by openai/gpt-6-luna; grounding review by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5.
Source check: passed by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 on 2026-11-13T22:48:58.427Z. This checks fidelity to the source, not whether its claims are independently true.
Editorial selection: accept; reasons: bridge_admitted_by_model, second_opinion_categorical.
Observation: e6d7be4ff20ca7e41b5bd94ec25574bce4d85bfe4ff159c8254ffff419c9adb1. Source text hash: 03ac3d7c87aa4f03c96e1007816beb1a678c3a53d5f1678c71e37b8e3382b1d3.
Revision and source-check history
Version 1 · 2026-11-13T22:53:26.237Z
MIT Technology Review’s The Download considers drone defenses and AI’s energy needs
MIT Technology Review’s May 29, 2025, edition of The Download reports on possible microwave defenses against drones and the energy that may power AI’s growth. Sam Dean describes a hypothetical swarm attack and says the US armed forces are testing weapons intended to disable drones en masse. He explains that high-powered microwaves can zap drone circuits, presenting them as one approach under investigation rather than a demonstrated defense. Casey Crownhart says building new nuclear plants is neither simple nor fast, while David Rotman’s story considers whether the AI boom could rely on fossil fuels. The newsletter leaves open what will power AI and points readers to the full stories for more detail. In another item, Will Douglas Heaven reports that builders of generative coding assistants think they could be a fast track to , which the newsletter describes as hypothetical.
Original source
MIT Technology Review · Article
Source details
Original source date: May 29, 2025 (2025-05-29T12:15:00Z).
Date basis: Date from the publisher’s own records, through its API.
Added to Escape Meridian: 2026-11-13T22:53:26.237Z. First observed: 2026-10-30T14:48:29.010Z. Retrieved: 2026-10-30T14:51:47.031Z.
Limits
Text as retrieved on October 30, 2026; originally published May 29, 2025. The microwave-defense and energy discussions point to linked full stories, but their evidence and further detail are not included in the retrieved text. The text does not report demonstrated microwave effectiveness or specify the energy sources that will power AI.
Open question
What evidence does the full reporting provide about how well high-powered microwaves can disable drones, and what energy sources could meet AI’s expected demands?
Source-stated
Sam Dean presents high-powered microwaves as one weapon being tested to disable drones en masse, describing their effect on drone circuits.
Every branch of the service and a host of defense tech startups are testing out new weapons that promise to disable drones en masse. And one of these is microwaves
Source-stated
Casey Crownhart says building new nuclear plants is not simple or fast, and relays David Rotman’s suggestion that AI’s growth could rely on fossil fuels.
building new nuclear plants isn’t so simple or so fast. And as my colleague David Rotman lays out in his story, the AI boom could wind up relying on another energy source: fossil fuels.
Source-stated
Will Douglas Heaven reports that builders of generative coding assistants think they could be a fast track to artificial general intelligence; the newsletter describes that technology as hypothetical.
Many of the people building generative coding assistants think that they could be a fast track to artificial general intelligence, the hypothetical superhuman technology
Source and contributor context
MIT Technology Review · Publisher
The publisher is identified here. No individual author has been inferred.
Source media
Media retrieval status: unchecked.
Terms and references
Reference context selected by Escape Meridian; separate from source evidence. Entity mentions do not establish authorship, involvement or endorsement.
Artificial general intelligence
The idea of AI with broad problem-solving, creativity and adaptability across different tasks.
Editorial provenance
Version 1. Publication ID: 92b81e04-1dc9-aeca-3349-1fa00c70bc8d.
Prepared by openai/gpt-6-luna; grounding review by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5.
Source check: passed by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 on 2026-11-13T22:48:58.427Z. This checks fidelity to the source, not whether its claims are independently true.
Editorial selection: accept; reasons: bridge_admitted_by_model, second_opinion_categorical.
Observation: e6d7be4ff20ca7e41b5bd94ec25574bce4d85bfe4ff159c8254ffff419c9adb1. Source text hash: 03ac3d7c87aa4f03c96e1007816beb1a678c3a53d5f1678c71e37b8e3382b1d3.
passed · 2026-11-13T22:48:58.427Z · anthropic/claude-opus-5.5
Publication: 92b81e04-1dc9-aeca-3349-1fa00c70bc8d
attribution — pass: This is a single newsletter issue in which the authors comment in their own words, not a bare listing. The reading attributes each item correctly: Sam Dean for the microwave story, Casey Crownhart for the energy item (relaying David Rotman), and Will Douglas Heaven for the coding item. The publisher, MIT Technology Review, is named.
As I discovered, building new nuclear plants isn’t so simple or so fast.
summary — pass: The title, summary and question faithfully reflect the newsletter's main items. The reading keeps the hedging: microwaves are one weapon being tested that promises to disable drones, not a proven defense, and what will power AI is left open. A general reader can follow the central terms, and AGI is defined on the page. The question names a genuine unresolved issue from the source.
So what’s going to power AI? Read the full story.
date — pass: The reading states May 29, 2025, which matches the UTC day of originalPublished, and the evidence is a publisher page, so no archive disclosure is needed. The Deep Dive sidebar mentions items that may come from after that date, such as OpenAI math findings and calls for a global AI body. The reading neither uses nor relies on them. The forecasts it reports remain attributed as possibilities.
the AI boom could wind up relying on another energy source: fossil fuels
support — pass: Each claim is directly supported by the source text. The limitations correctly note that the linked full stories' evidence is absent from the retrieved text. The reading adds no unsupported benefits, costs or outcomes, and keeps 'hypothetical' for AGI.
Many of the people building generative coding assistants think that they could be a fast track to artificial general intelligence, the hypothetical superhuman technology
media — pass: No media was selected, and no verified candidate media was supplied, so leaving media empty is appropriate.
Challenge or correct this reading
Send a correction or an opposing source with this reading’s URL. Disagreement and uncertainty can remain unresolved.
The idea of AI with broad problem-solving, creativity and adaptability across different tasks.
Definition referenceThe idea of AI with broad problem-solving, creativity and adaptability across different tasks.
Definition reference