The Download: Google playing AI search catchup, and forming relationships with chatbots

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.

Is Google playing catchup on search with OpenAI?

—Mat Honan

I’ve been mulling over something that Will Heaven, our senior editor for AI, pointed out not too long ago: all the big players in AI seem to be moving in the same directions and converging on the same things. Agents. Deep research. Lightweight versions of models. Etc.

Google is no different. It’s just announced it’s adding new AI features from Gemini to search, and adding search features to Gemini. 

What strikes me more than how well they work is that they are really just about catching up with OpenAI’s ChatGPT.  And their belated appearance in March of the year 2025 doesn’t seem like a great sign for Google. Read the full story.

This story originally appeared in The Debrief with Mat Honan, a weekly newsletter about the biggest stories in tech from our editor in chief. Sign up here to get the next one in your inbox on Friday.

If you’re interested in reading more about AI search, check out the following stories: 

+ Generative AI search was one of MIT Technology Review’s 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2025. Read more about why it made the cut for this year’s list. + AI means the end of internet search as we’ve known it. Despite fewer clicks, copyright fights, and sometimes iffy answers, AI could unlock new ways to summon all the world’s knowledge.

+ AI search could break the web. Developers should act before governments fall back on blunt tools. Read the full story.

+ Why Google’s AI Overviews gets things wrong. The feature provides brief, AI-generated summaries highlighting key information and links on top of search results. Unfortunately, it’s also unreliable.

+ Why you shouldn’t trust AI search engines. Read the full story.

AI chatbots have joined the chat

Chatbots are changing how we connect to each other and ourselves. But are these changes for the better, and how should they be monitored and regulated?

To learn more, join me for a live Roundtable session this Thursday at 12pm ET. I’ll be chatting with MIT Technology Review editor Rachel Courtland and senior reporter Eileen Guo, and we’ll be unpacking the landscape around chatbots. Register to ensure you don’t miss out!

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 How Trump’s foreign aid cuts will hurt millions of peoples’ health
The world is going to struggle to cope with the loss of US support. (Vox)
+ Hundreds of thousands of people are likely to lose their lives as a result. (New Yorker $)
+ The cuts could cause tuberculosis to become untreatable again. (The Atlantic $)
+ Top scientific universities are being forced to slash jobs. (The Guardian)
+ Pregnant women may die because of cuts to reproductive care. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Left-leaning Americans are abandoning Tesla
And conservatives face an uphill climb to plug the sales gap. (NYT $)
+ The company is turning its back on the typically pro-EV buyers that made it a success. (WP $)

3 VC firms are rushing to invest in Israeli startups
They’re betting that the firms are likely to do future business with the US. (WSJ $)
+ Here’s the defense tech at the center of US aid to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan. (MIT Technology Review)

4 NASA is scheduled to return the two stranded astronauts on Tuesday
A new crew arrived to relieve them of their duties over the weekend. (NPR)
+ Let’s see if they make it home this week or not. (Ars Technica)
+ Space travel is seriously hard on the human body. (WP $)

5 Baidu’s new reasoning AI model is designed to challenge DeepSeek
It claims Ernie X1 offers the same performance at half the price. (Insider $)
+ DeepSeek’s shock success is sparking a new wave of AI investment. (Bloomberg $)
+ Four Chinese AI startups to watch beyond DeepSeek. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Alphabet has big plans for its laser-based internet project
Taara has been spun out of its moonshot incubator and into the real world. (FT $)
+ It’s a rival to Musk’s Starlink network. (The Verge)

7 What if Bitcoin’s mysterious creator is just a loser?
As the trail grows older, all signs point towards the shadowy figure being… a bit of a jerk. (NY Mag $)

8 Drone shows are bringing 3D artists’ ideas to life
The only problem is, they come with a safety warning. (Rest of World)

9 Google’s new Gemini AI model can remove watermarks from images
Naughty, naughty. (TechCrunch)
+ It’s easy to tamper with watermarks from AI-generated text. (MIT Technology Review)

10 What is vibe coding, exactly?
Developers are giving in and letting AI dictate its own path. (The Information $)

Quote of the day

 “To a lot of people, putting Elon Musk in charge of protecting the middle class is like putting Jeffrey Dahmer in charge of protecting a morgue.”

—Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic strategist, explains why Elon Musk’s unpopular actions are likely to become a problem for the Trump administration, the Guardian reports.

The big story

How covid conspiracies led to an alarming resurgence in AIDS denialism

August 2024

Several million people were listening in February when Joe Rogan falsely declared that “party drugs” were an “important factor in AIDS.” His guest on The Joe Rogan Experience, the former evolutionary biology professor turned contrarian podcaster Bret Weinstein, agreed with him.

Speaking to the biggest podcast audience in the world, the two men were promoting dangerous and false ideas—ideas that were in fact debunked and thoroughly disproved decades ago.

These comments and others like them add up to a small but unmistakable resurgence in AIDS denialism—a false collection of theories arguing either that HIV doesn’t cause AIDS or that there’s no such thing as HIV at all.

These claims had largely fallen out of favor until the coronavirus arrived. But, following the pandemic, a renewed suspicion of public health figures and agencies is giving new life to ideas that had long ago been pushed to the margins. Read the full story.

—Anna Merlan

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.)

+ Happy St Patrick’s Day, if you’re celebrating today!
+ This newsreader losing it over the name of an inspirational pig is the most entertaining thing you’ll see today Read More