Space debris remains a growing but still limited risk to aviation and public safety. The European Space Agency estimates about three pieces of defunct equipment enter Earth’s atmosphere every day, and the rise of megaconstellations could increase that to dozens by the mid-2030s. To date no one has been injured by falling space junk, though multiple close calls have been reported. Some projections cited in the article put the chance of a single human death or injury from debris striking the ground at around 10% per year by 2035, implying a better than even chance of such an event roughly once a decade.
Alongside the hazards from orbit, researchers are exploring tools to address another technological risk: the spread of conspiracies. Work by Thomas Costello, Gordon Pennycook, and David Rand shows that many people who believe in conspiracies can respond to evidence and argument. Those responses can be delivered effectively through tailored conversations with artificial intelligence chatbots, suggesting that generative technologies often criticized for enabling disinformation might also be used to counter it.
The newsletter aggregates several other technology developments to watch. Highlights include reports that China is expanding a remote nuclear test site, Jeff Bezos taking a co-CEO role at a new artificial intelligence startup called Project Prometheus focused on computing and aerospace applications, concerns about artificial intelligence toys having inappropriate conversations with children, and interest from big tech in locating data centers in space. Other briefs cover topics from mafia recruitment on TikTok to debates about resisting artificial intelligence in the workplace and China’s electric vehicle fleet as a potential battery network.
The edition also flags an investigation into Apple’s use of eucalyptus tree farms in Brazil as part of carbon-neutral goals, which has raised ecological and local concerns, and closes with a quoted reminder from parenting consultant Samantha Broxton that parental controls cannot fully protect children from technology risks. The pieces are part of ongoing MIT Technology Review series that unpack complex tech issues and their social implications.
