The Download: gig workers training humanoids, and better AI benchmarks

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.

The gig workers who are training humanoid robots at home 

When Zeus, a medical student in Nigeria, returns to his apartment from a long day at the hospital, he straps his iPhone to his forehead and records himself doing chores. 

Zeus is a data recorder for Micro1, which sells the data he collects to robotics firms. As these companies race to build humanoids, videos from workers like Zeus have become the hottest new way to train them.  

Micro1 has hired thousands of them in more than 50 countries, including India, Nigeria, and Argentina. The jobs pay well locally, but raise thorny questions around privacy and informed consent. The work can be challenging—and weird. Read the full story. 

—Michelle Kim 

Our readers recently voted humanoid robots the “11th breakthrough” to add to our 2026 list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies. Check out what else officially made the cut. 

AI benchmarks are broken. Here’s what we need instead. 

For decades, AI has been evaluated based on whether it can outperform humans on isolated problems. But it’s seldom used this way in the real world. 

While AI is assessed in a vacuum, it operates in messy, complex, multi-person environments over time. This misalignment leads us to misunderstand its capabilities, risks, and impacts. 

We need new benchmarks that assess AI’s performance over longer horizons within human teams, workflows, and organizations. Here’s a proposal for one such approach: Human–AI, Context-Specific Evaluation.  

—Angela Aristidou, professor at University College London and faculty fellow at the Stanford Digital Economy Lab and the Stanford Human-Centered AI Institute. 

MIT Technology Review Narrated: can quantum computers now solve health care problems? We’ll soon find out. 

In a laboratory on the outskirts of Oxford, a quantum computer built from atoms and light awaits its moment. The device is small but powerful—and also very valuable. Infleqtion, the company that owns it, is hoping its abilities will win $5 million at a competition.  

The prize will go to the quantum computer that can solve real health care problems that “classical” computers cannot. But there can be only one big winner—if there is a winner at all. 

—Michael Brooks 

This is our latest story to be turned into an 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 OpenAI just closed the biggest funding round in Silicon Valley history 
It raised $122 billion ahead of its blockbuster IPO, which is expected later this year. (WSJ $) 
+ It’s also prepping a push to “rethink the social contract.” (Vanity Fair $) 
+ Campaigners are urging people to quit ChatGPT. (MIT Technology Review)   

2 Iran has threatened to attack 18 US tech companies  
It’s eyeing their operations in the Middle East. (Politico) 
+ Targets include Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, and Google. (Engadget) 
+ Iran struck AWS data centers earlier this month. (Reuters $) 

3 Artemis II is about to fly humans to the Moon. Here’s the science they’ll do 
Their experiments will set the stage for future explorers. (Nature) 
+ You can watch the launch attempt today. (Engadget)  

4 Putin is trying to take full control of Russia’s internet 
New outages and blockages are cutting the country off from the world. (NYT $) 
+ Can we repair the internet? (MIT Technology Review) 

5 A robotaxi outage in China left passengers stranded on highways  
Baidu vehicles froze on the streets of Wuhan. (Bloomberg $) 
+ Police are blaming a “system failure.” (Reuters $) 

6 US government requests for social media user data are soaring 
They’ve skyrocketed by 770% in the past decade. (Bloomberg $) 
+ Is the Pentagon allowed to surveil Americans with AI? (MIT Technology Review) 

7 Tesla has admitted that humans sometimes drive its robotaxis 
Remote drivers occasionally control them completely. (Wired $) 

8 A satellite-smashing chain reaction could spiral out of control 
This data visualization captures the dangers of space collisions. (Guardian) 
+ Here’s all the stuff we’ve put into space. (MIT Technology Review) 

9 Meta’s smartglasses can turn you into a creep 
According to one journalist who wore them for a month. (Guardian) 

10 A Claude Code leak has exposed plans for a virtual pet  
We could be getting a Tamagotchi for the GenAI era. (The Verge) 

Quote of the day 

“From now on, for every assassination, an American company will be destroyed.” 

—Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) threatens US tech firms in an affiliated Telegram, per CNBC. 

One More Thing 

How one mine could unlock billions in EV subsidies 

In a pine farm north of the tiny town of Tamarack, Minnesota, Talon Metals has uncovered one of America’s densest nickel deposits. Now it wants to begin mining the ore. 

Products made from the nickel could net more than $26 billion in subsidies through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which is starting to transform the US economy. To understand how, we tallied up the potential tax credits available. Read the full story to find out what we discovered. 

—James Temple 

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.) 

+ A selfless group of gluttons tried to taste-test every potato chip in the world.  
+ Get romantic inspiration from these penguins’ engagement pebbles. 
+ Good news: global terrorism has hit a 15-year low. 
+ Enjoy endless new views through these windows around the world.