That is in the present day’s version of The Obtain, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a each day dose of what is going on on on the earth of know-how.

How the Pentagon is adapting to China’s technological rise

It’s been simply over two months since Kathleen Hicks stepped down as US deputy secretary of protection. Because the highest-ranking lady in Pentagon historical past, Hicks formed US army posture by means of an period outlined by renewed competitors between highly effective nations and a scramble to modernize protection know-how.  

Over the previous three many years, Hicks has watched the Pentagon rework—politically, strategically, and technologically. On this dialog with MIT Know-how Evaluation, Hicks displays on how the Pentagon is adapting—or failing to adapt—to a brand new period of geopolitical competitors. She discusses China’s technological rise, the way forward for AI in warfare, and her signature initiative, Replicator, a Pentagon initiative to quickly area 1000’s of low-cost autonomous methods corresponding to drones. Learn the complete story.

—Caiwen Chen

The must-reads

I’ve combed the web to search out you in the present day’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.

1 Donald Trump’s commerce warfare may set off a worldwide recession
Buyers are sounding the alarm as markets battle to react to his tariffs. (Economist $)
+ Unsurprisingly, the President has doubled down on his tariffs. (BBC)
+ It’s all a part of his plan to “reset international commerce.” (Politico)
+ Trump’s tariffs will ship an enormous blow to local weather tech. (MIT Know-how Evaluation)

2 The White Home was simply hours from saying a TikTok deal
Till the Chinese language authorities insisted on tariff negotiations first. (WP $)
+ The 2 nations now appear more likely to descend into tit-for-tat restrictions. (WSJ $)
+ The President has prolonged the sale deadline by one other 75 days. (NBC Information)

3 DeepSeek is engaged on self-improving AI fashions
It’s working with Tsinghua College to cut back its fashions’ coaching wants. (Bloomberg $)
+ China is narrowing the AI dominance hole between it and the US. (Wired $)
+ How DeepSeek ripped up the AI playbook—and why everybody’s going to comply with its lead. (MIT Know-how Evaluation)

4 X is flourishing below the Trump administration
Elon Musk seems to be positioning the platform as a brand new media outlet. (NYT $)
+ X is cracking down on parody accounts. (BBC)

5 A shingles vaccine may assist decrease the danger of creating dementia
We’d should overhaul the best way we deal with neurodegenerative ailments. (Vox)
+ It might assist to deal with them like viruses. (NYT $)
+ Dementia content material will get billions of views on TikTok. Whose story does it inform? (MIT Know-how Evaluation)

6 San Francisco’s mayor is making an attempt to persuade tech leaders to come back again
He could also be keen to supply tax breaks as an incentive. (TechCrunch)
+ A few of his supporters aren’t in favor of his new upzoning plan. (SF Normal)

7 TikTok’s algorithm promotes dwell streams of begging kids
Whereas taking charges and fee of as much as 70%. (The Guardian)

8 China’s EV makers are locked in intense competitors
And customers are spoilt for selection. (FT $)
+ Argentina has lifted tariffs on EVs. (Remainder of World)
+ China’s EV giants are betting massive on humanoid robots. (MIT Know-how Evaluation)

9 This model of online game Quake was created utilizing AI
Microsoft has opened a demo as much as Copilot customers. (The Verge)
+ How generative AI may reinvent what it means to play. (MIT Know-how Evaluation)

10 Monitoring movie star heights is an web obsession
Is anybody truly 5”11? (The Guardian)

Quote of the day

“We’d wish to put this chapter behind us.”

—Sean Murphy, government vp of coverage at commerce group the Info Know-how Business Council, tells the Washington Put up how the tech trade is determined to see the tariffs that have an effect on it reversed as rapidly as potential.

The large story

The messy quest to interchange medication with electrical energy

Within the early 2010s, electrical energy appeared poised for a hostile takeover of your physician’s workplace. Analysis into how the nervous system—the freeway that carries electrical messages between the mind and the physique— controls the immune response was gaining traction.

And that had opened the door to the potential for hacking into the physique’s circuitry and thereby controlling a number of persistent ailments, together with rheumatoid arthritis, bronchial asthma, and diabetes, as if the immune system have been as reprogrammable as a pc.

To do this you’d want a brand new class of implant: an “electroceutical.” These gadgets would exchange medication. No extra messy uncomfortable side effects. And no extra guessing whether or not a drug would work otherwise for you and another person. Within the 10 years or so since, round a billion {dollars} has accreted across the effort. However electroceuticals have nonetheless not taken off as hoped.

Now, nonetheless, a rising variety of researchers are beginning to look past the nervous system, and experimenting with intelligent methods to electrically manipulate cells elsewhere within the physique, such because the pores and skin.

Their work means that this method may match the early promise of electroceuticals, yielding fast-healing bioelectric bandages, novel approaches to treating autoimmune problems, new methods of repairing nerve injury, and even higher therapies for most cancers. Learn the complete story.

—Sally Adee

We are able to nonetheless have good issues

A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction to brighten up your day. (Acquired any concepts? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)

+ The web is hating on the Beatles biopics earlier than they’re even out—however why?
+ Have you learnt the final time all of humanity was on Earth?
+ The brand new Bare Gun movie appears suitably unhinged.
+ Right here’s some easy bits of recommendation to assist make every day that little bit happier.