The Download: the US office that tracks foreign disinformation is being eliminated, and explaining vibe coding

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.

US office that counters foreign disinformation is being eliminated

The only office within the US State Department that monitors foreign disinformation is to be eliminated, according to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, confirming reporting by MIT Technology Review.

The Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R/FIMI) Hub is a small office in the State Department’s Office of Public Diplomacy that tracks and counters foreign disinformation campaigns.

The culling of the office leaves the State Department without a way to actively counter the increasingly sophisticated disinformation campaigns from foreign governments like those of Russia, Iran, and China. Read the full story.

—Eileen Guo

What is vibe coding, exactly?

When OpenAI cofounder Andrej Karpathy excitedly took to X back in February to post about his new hobby, he probably had no idea he was about to coin a phrase that encapsulated an entire movement steadily gaining momentum across the world.

“There’s a new kind of coding I call ‘vibe coding’, where you fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists,” he said. “I’m building a project or webapp, but it’s not really coding—I just see stuff, say stuff, run stuff, and copy paste stuff, and it mostly works.” 

If this all sounds very different from poring over lines of code, that’s because Karpathy was talking about a particular style of coding with AI assistance. His words struck a chord among software developers and enthusiastic amateurs alike. 

In the months since, his post has sparked think pieces and impassioned debates across the internet. But what exactly is vibe coding? Who does it benefit, and what’s its likely future? Read the full story.

—Rhiannon Williams

This story is the latest for MIT Technology Review Explains, our series untangling the complex, messy world of technology to help you understand what’s coming next. You can read more from the series here.

These four charts sum up the state of AI and energy

You’ve probably read that AI will drive an increase in electricity demand. But how that fits into the context of the current and future grid can feel less clear from the headlines.

A new report from the International Energy Agency digs into the details of energy and AI, and I think it’s worth looking at some of the data to help clear things up. Here are four charts from the report that sum up the crucial points about AI and energy demand. 

—Casey Crownhart

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.

We need targeted policies, not blunt tariffs, to drive “American energy dominance”

—Addison Killean Stark

President Trump and his appointees have repeatedly stressed the need to establish “American energy dominance.” 

But the White House’s profusion of executive orders and aggressive tariffs, along with its determined effort to roll back clean-energy policies, are moving the industry in the wrong direction, creating market chaos and economic uncertainty that are making it harder for both legacy players and emerging companies to invest, grow, and compete. Read the full story.

This story is part of Heat Exchange, MIT Technology Review’s guest opinion series, offering expert commentary on legal, political and regulatory issues related to climate change and clean energy. You can read the rest of the pieces here.

MIT Technology Review Narrated: Will we ever trust robots?

If most robots still need remote human operators to be safe and effective, why should we welcome them into our homes?

This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which  we’re publishing 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 The Trump administration has cancelled lifesaving aid to foreign children
After Elon Musk previously promised to preserve it. (The Atlantic $)
+ DOGE worker Jeremy Lewin, who dismantled USAID, has a new role. (Fortune $)
+ The department attempted to embed its staff in an independent non-profit. (The Guardian)
+ Elon Musk, DOGE, and the Evil Housekeeper Problem. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Astronomers have detected a possible signature of life on a distant planet
It’s the first time the potential for life has been spotted on a habitable planet. (NYT $)
+ Maybe we should be building observatories on the moon. (Ars Technica)

3 OpenAI’s new AI models can reason with images
They’re capable of integrating images directly into their reasoning process. (VentureBeat)
+ But they’re still vulnerable to making mistakes. (Ars Technica)
+ AI reasoning models can cheat to win chess games. (MIT Technology Review) 

4 Trump’s new chip crackdown will cost US firms billions
It’s not just Nvidia that’s set to suffer. (WP $)
+ But Jensen Huang isn’t giving up on China altogether. (WSJ $)
+ He’s said the company follows export laws ‘to the letter.’ (CNBC)

5 Elon Musk reportedly used X to search for potential mothers of his children
Sources suggest he has many more children than is publicly known. (WSJ $)

6 Local US cops are being trained as immigration enforcers
Critics say the rollout is ripe for civil rights abuses. (The Markup)
+ ICE is still bound by constitutional limits—for now. (The Conversation)

7 This electronic weapon can fry drone swarms from a distance
The RapidDestroyer uses a high-power radio frequency to take down multiple drones. (FT $)
+ Meet the radio-obsessed civilian shaping Ukraine’s drone defense. (MIT Technology Review)

8 TikTok is attempting to fight back against misinformation
It’s rolling out an X-style community notes feature. (Bloomberg $)

9 A deceased composer’s brain is still making music
Three years after Alvin Lucier’s death, cerebral organoids made from his white blood cells are making sounds. (Popular Mechanics)
+ AI is coming for music, too. (MIT Technology Review)

10 This AI agent can switch personalities
Depending what you need it to do. (Wired $)

Quote of the day

“Yayy, we get one last meal before getting on the electric chair.”

—Jing Levine, who runs a party goods business with her husband that’s heavily reliant on suppliers in China, reacts to Donald Trump’s plans to pause tariffs except for China, the New York Times reports.

The big story

AI means the end of internet search as we’ve known it

We all know what it means, colloquially, to google something. You pop a few words in a search box and in return get a list of blue links to the most relevant results. Fundamentally, it’s just fetching information that’s already out there on the internet and showing it to you, in a structured way.

But all that is up for grabs. We are at a new inflection point.

The biggest change to the way search engines deliver information to us since the 1990s is happening right now. No more keyword searching. Instead, you can ask questions in natural language. And instead of links, you’ll increasingly be met with answers written by generative AI and based on live information from across the internet, delivered the same way. 

Not everyone is excited for the change. Publishers are completely freaked out. And people are also worried about what these new LLM-powered results will mean for our fundamental shared reality. Read the full story.

—Mat Honan

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 skeet ’em at me.)

+ Essential viewing: Sweden is broadcasting its beloved moose spring migration for 20 days straight.
+ Fearsome warlord Babur was obsessed with melons, and frankly, I don’t blame him.
+ Great news for squid fans: a colossal squid has been captured on film for the first time! Read More