# MIT Technology Review’s The Download on grid upgrades and a Chinese AI agent [Canonical reading](https://escapemeridian.com/readings/mit-technology-review-s-the-download-on-grid-upgrades-and-a-efc0b6ec) MIT Technology Review published this edition of The Download on March 10, 2025. Brian Deese and Rob Gramlich argue that advanced transmission technologies (ATTs)—hardware and software tools that can increase the capacity and efficiency of the power sector—could expand the existing grid without completely new infrastructure. They say these tools could shorten grid-upgrade timelines, avoid difficult permitting issues and save US consumers billions of dollars annually. Their question is why US investment and deployment have not grown sharply, given the expense and delay of building new transmission lines as electricity consumption rises. The edition also reports that China claims to have created Manus, an AI agent allegedly able to operate without human intervention. The newsletter notes that it is unclear whether the attention around Manus is justified. It does not establish how Manus performs or explain why ATT investment remains limited. 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 Original source date: Mar 10, 2025 (2025-03-10). Date basis: Date from the publisher’s archive: its article address or archive listing. Added to Escape Meridian: 2026-11-15T02:53:26.355Z. First observed: 2026-10-25T10:24:14.773Z. Retrieved: 2026-10-25T10:25:45.519Z. - [The Download: supercharging the power grid, and a new Chinese AI agent](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/03/10/1112944/the-download-supercharging-the-power-grid-and-a-new-chinese-ai-agent/) ## Limits Text as retrieved on October 25, 2026; originally published March 10, 2025. The retrieved edition summarizes Deese and Gramlich’s argument but does not provide the full story’s evidence for the claimed effects of advanced transmission technologies. The newsletter does not explain what is holding back investment and deployment of advanced transmission technologies. The excerpt provides no evidence about Manus’s performance; it reports the claim with the qualification “allegedly.” ## Open question What is holding back investment and deployment of advanced transmission technologies in the US, despite the potential benefits Deese and Gramlich describe? ## Source-stated Brian Deese and Rob Gramlich say advanced transmission technologies could expand grid capacity and efficiency without completely new infrastructure. > a suite of hardware and software tools known as advanced transmission technologies (ATTs), which can increase both the capacity and the efficiency of the power sector. - [Supporting source](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/03/10/1112944/the-download-supercharging-the-power-grid-and-a-new-chinese-ai-agent/) ## Source-stated Deese and Gramlich say advanced transmission technologies could shorten grid-upgrade timelines, avoid permitting issues and bring annual savings for US consumers. > ATTs have the potential to radically reduce timelines for grid upgrades, avoid tricky permitting issues, and yield billions in annual savings for US consumers. - [Supporting source](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/03/10/1112944/the-download-supercharging-the-power-grid-and-a-new-chinese-ai-agent/) ## Source-stated The newsletter asks why US investment and deployment of advanced transmission technologies have not sharply increased. > So why are we not seeing an explosion in ATT investment and deployment in the US? - [Supporting source](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/03/10/1112944/the-download-supercharging-the-power-grid-and-a-new-chinese-ai-agent/) ## Source-stated The edition reports that China claims Manus is the world’s first fully autonomous AI agent, while qualifying that it can allegedly operate without human intervention. > China claims to have created the world’s first fully autonomous AI agent > The agent, called Manus, can allegedly operate fully free of human intervention. - [Supporting source](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/03/10/1112944/the-download-supercharging-the-power-grid-and-a-new-chinese-ai-agent/) ## Source-stated The edition says it is unclear whether the attention around Manus is justified. > But it’s not clear if the hype can be justified at this stage. - [Supporting source](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/03/10/1112944/the-download-supercharging-the-power-grid-and-a-new-chinese-ai-agent/) ## 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. ## AI agent An AI system that chooses and carries out actions toward a goal, often using software tools. - [Definition reference](https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/ai-agents) ## Editorial provenance Version 1. Publication ID: 3ffa673d-f952-fca5-21fa-7ec1e24beb87. Prepared by openai/gpt-6-luna; grounding review by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5. Source check: passed by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 on 2026-11-15T02:43:39.866Z. 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: c9aa6dab4f6e84f97e30ee8bdfa39b4a87f3fe03a46d861937bd25f9fd66070b. Source text hash: 9fad2b03227263a2c18777962e4f215b0b8f3a9db01c982d4a6cfcf29daa7b4f. ## Revision and source-check history ### Version 1 — 2026-11-15T02:53:26.355Z MIT Technology Review published this edition of The Download on March 10, 2025. Brian Deese and Rob Gramlich argue that advanced transmission technologies (ATTs)—hardware and software tools that can increase the capacity and efficiency of the power sector—could expand the existing grid without completely new infrastructure. They say these tools could shorten grid-upgrade timelines, avoid difficult permitting issues and save US consumers billions of dollars annually. Their question is why US investment and deployment have not grown sharply, given the expense and delay of building new transmission lines as electricity consumption rises. The edition also reports that China claims to have created Manus, an AI agent allegedly able to operate without human intervention. The newsletter notes that it is unclear whether the attention around Manus is justified. It does not establish how Manus performs or explain why ATT investment remains limited. ## Original source MIT Technology Review · Article Original source date: Mar 10, 2025 (2025-03-10). Date basis: Date from the publisher’s archive: its article address or archive listing. Added to Escape Meridian: 2026-11-15T02:53:26.355Z. First observed: 2026-10-25T10:24:14.773Z. Retrieved: 2026-10-25T10:25:45.519Z. - [The Download: supercharging the power grid, and a new Chinese AI agent](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/03/10/1112944/the-download-supercharging-the-power-grid-and-a-new-chinese-ai-agent/) ## Limits Text as retrieved on October 25, 2026; originally published March 10, 2025. The retrieved edition summarizes Deese and Gramlich’s argument but does not provide the full story’s evidence for the claimed effects of advanced transmission technologies. The newsletter does not explain what is holding back investment and deployment of advanced transmission technologies. The excerpt provides no evidence about Manus’s performance; it reports the claim with the qualification “allegedly.” ## Open question What is holding back investment and deployment of advanced transmission technologies in the US, despite the potential benefits Deese and Gramlich describe? ## Source-stated Brian Deese and Rob Gramlich say advanced transmission technologies could expand grid capacity and efficiency without completely new infrastructure. > a suite of hardware and software tools known as advanced transmission technologies (ATTs), which can increase both the capacity and the efficiency of the power sector. - [Supporting source](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/03/10/1112944/the-download-supercharging-the-power-grid-and-a-new-chinese-ai-agent/) ## Source-stated Deese and Gramlich say advanced transmission technologies could shorten grid-upgrade timelines, avoid permitting issues and bring annual savings for US consumers. > ATTs have the potential to radically reduce timelines for grid upgrades, avoid tricky permitting issues, and yield billions in annual savings for US consumers. - [Supporting source](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/03/10/1112944/the-download-supercharging-the-power-grid-and-a-new-chinese-ai-agent/) ## Source-stated The newsletter asks why US investment and deployment of advanced transmission technologies have not sharply increased. > So why are we not seeing an explosion in ATT investment and deployment in the US? - [Supporting source](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/03/10/1112944/the-download-supercharging-the-power-grid-and-a-new-chinese-ai-agent/) ## Source-stated The edition reports that China claims Manus is the world’s first fully autonomous AI agent, while qualifying that it can allegedly operate without human intervention. > China claims to have created the world’s first fully autonomous AI agent > The agent, called Manus, can allegedly operate fully free of human intervention. - [Supporting source](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/03/10/1112944/the-download-supercharging-the-power-grid-and-a-new-chinese-ai-agent/) ## Source-stated The edition says it is unclear whether the attention around Manus is justified. > But it’s not clear if the hype can be justified at this stage. - [Supporting source](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/03/10/1112944/the-download-supercharging-the-power-grid-and-a-new-chinese-ai-agent/) ## 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. ## AI agent An AI system that chooses and carries out actions toward a goal, often using software tools. - [Definition reference](https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/ai-agents) ## Editorial provenance Version 1. Publication ID: 3ffa673d-f952-fca5-21fa-7ec1e24beb87. Prepared by openai/gpt-6-luna; grounding review by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5. Source check: passed by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 on 2026-11-15T02:43:39.866Z. 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: c9aa6dab4f6e84f97e30ee8bdfa39b4a87f3fe03a46d861937bd25f9fd66070b. Source text hash: 9fad2b03227263a2c18777962e4f215b0b8f3a9db01c982d4a6cfcf29daa7b4f. ### passed — 2026-11-15T02:43:39.866Z — anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 Publication: 3ffa673d-f952-fca5-21fa-7ec1e24beb87 attribution — pass: This is one newsletter issue in which MIT Technology Review comments in its own words, not a bare listing. The reading attributes the grid argument to Deese and Gramlich, the bylined authors of the featured story. It also attributes the Manus claim to China, as the newsletter reported it. > Brian Deese is an innovation fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology summary — pass: The reading leads with the featured argument and explains ATTs in plain language. It covers the claimed benefits and the open question about deployment. The Manus item keeps the source's hedging, and the page defines AI agent. The question follows directly from the source's own question. > So why are we not seeing an explosion in ATT investment and deployment in the US? date — pass: The reading's March 10, 2025 date matches originalPublished at day precision. The Deep Dive section lists later Download issues that look like later additions to the page, but the reading neither uses nor relies on them. It presents no forecast as an outcome. The page is a publisher page, so no archive disclosure is needed. The modification time falls on the publication day. > This is today's edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter support — pass: Each claim is source-stated and has a matching excerpt. The reading keeps the hedges 'potential', 'claims' and 'allegedly'. It adds no unsupported benefits or costs, and its limitations note that the evidence for the ATT effects and Manus's performance is absent. > ATTs have the potential to radically reduce timelines for grid upgrades, avoid tricky permitting issues, and yield billions in annual savings for US consumers. media — pass: No media was selected, and no verified candidates were supplied. ## Recorded references Explicit citations in public readings and public file attachments to this reading. Shared topics are not citations. Other artifact types need an explicit reference adapter. No public references recorded here yet. [Reference data (JSON)](/readings/efc0b6ecd9d041d26bf713968c05ac10e40a567a1d84070cff5fce19a80bc108/references.json) ## Corrections and challenges [Send a correction or an opposing source](https://escapemeridian.com/corrections/) [JSON record](https://escapemeridian.com/readings/mit-technology-review-s-the-download-on-grid-upgrades-and-a-efc0b6ec.json)