The Download: AI and the economy, and slop for the masses (www.technologyreview.com)

MIT Technology Review’s morning briefing spotlights a subscriber Roundtable (with the Financial Times) probing how AI is reshaping the economy — from job anxiety and widening inequality to where investment frenzy is creating FOMO among tech backers. The issue bundles reporting and analysis: pieces on AI’s labor-market impacts, policy and corporate course corrections needed to steer AI toward broad prosperity, and a monthly AI Hype Index that separates realistic advances (e.g., using AI to reduce animal testing) from overblown claims like imminent AGI. The newsletter also pushes its Narrated podcast and a curated “must‑reads” list that flags hot topics such as chipmakers’ struggles, drug export growth from China, and the rise of AI toys. Technically and practically, the biggest short-term story is the spread of LLM-based agents — systems that convert text instructions into real-world actions — which promise automation across tasks but remain brittle and unpredictable. The newsletter warns of risks in “handing agents the keys” even as companies deploy risky, high-impact systems (Uber’s fully driverless robotaxis in Abu Dhabi; Tesla’s expanding robotaxi plans). Combined with investor-driven surges in AI funding and debates over regulation, these trends imply urgent needs for robustness testing, governance frameworks, and equitable economic policy to manage disruption rather than simply celebrate capability.