The Download

MIT

TL;DR: What if getting a brain implant were as easy as rolling up your sleeve? That’s the pitch Deblina Sarkar, an associate professor at MIT and head of its Nano-Cybernetic Biotrek Lab, made at the conference. Her team is developing microscopic chips that could be injected into the bloodstream before making their own way to the brain. For now, the team is targeting brain cancer (and a few other conditions). But the long game? Upgrading healthy humans.

The pitch: Today’s brain implants require drilling a hole in the skull, which comes with risks like infection, plus roughly $100,000 in surgery costs. This means they can reach fewer than 1% of patients, says Sarkar—and exclude particularly vulnerable ones such as children and the elderly. The implanted electrodes can also kill surrounding neurons. Instead, the lab’s chips skip the operating room entirely and are made of biocompatible materials so the neurons stay healthy, per Sarkar—and treatment could cost under $5,000 at scale.

How it works: These chips, which Sarkar says are a billion times smaller than a grain of rice, hitch a ride on cells before implanting themselves in the target area, where they deliver electrical stimulation that is controlled wirelessly. They can also be switched on and off, says Sarkar, or even built to dissolve after days or years.

The short term: The lab has tested the electrical stimulation part of the tech on mice injected with tumors from the tissue of Mayo Clinic patients—and it extended median survival by more than 50%. Beyond brain cancer, the researchers are also targeting Alzheimer’s, chronic pain, and blindness. To get the tech out of the lab, Sarkar founded Cahira Technologies, and expects to start human trials within three years.

A bionic future: Down the line, Sarkar says the chips could be used in healthy people, too—including for health monitoring. Circulating through the body, they could flag anomalies in individual cells (something an MRI can’t see) before they become full-blown diseases.

In theory, the chips could even optimize how your neurons fire and sync, which Sarkar says would have your brain running at its best. And, like popping an SD card into your device for extra storage, you could even add synthetic neurons. “We do not have to be limited by the 100 billion neurons that biology has provided us,” Sarkar tells us. She’s also not ruling out Matrix-style downloads (kung fu, anyone?), but said the tech and our understanding of the brain have a ways to go before that becomes reality.

Bottom line: If this pans out, the most advanced brain tech on the planet could come with the same aftercare as a flu shot: a Band-Aid and maybe even a lollipop. —SM

      

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The Zeitbyte

The OpenAI movie has a “tech orgy” scene

Neon

Artificial, the much-anticipated movie about Sam Altman and his well-stocked doomsday bunker, hits select US theaters on Christmas Day. But it would probably make for perfect spooky season viewing, at least judging by a recent Vulture profile (which says it’s like “watching a horror movie you happen to be living through”).

A few of the most eyebrow-raising details about the movie from the piece:

• At one point, a group of computer scientists have a, erm, urination contest in the bathroom.
• In another scene, after an OpenAI model beats a human pro at the video game Dota 2, employees celebrate with beer and backflips—and then “two guys run from the kitchen with the bottles of beer, penises in hand, ready to join the tech orgy,” says Andrew Garfield, who plays Altman.
• Garfield’s brown eyes were digitally turned an eerie blue in the movie, giving them a “mesmeric lure, like falling into the uncanny valley.”

And the highlight: When asked during the interview whether he sees the OpenAI CEO as a narcissist, director Luca Guadagnino’s “mouth wiggles like a frown suppressing a smile.” And then he tells Vulture, “You can quote my face.” It’s probably safe to say that Altman won’t be screening this one at a company all-hands. —WK

Chaos Brewing Meter: ☕☕/5

• Apple CEO John Ternus has appointed a new design chief, and we hear it’s someone he knows very well.
• Useful or creepy? Muse can apparently whip up “a page for every person” in your life, per its internal instructions, and even suggest ways to improve your relationship with them.
• SpacexAI will change its name soon, according to Elon Musk—for a very “Wait, seriously?” reason.
• Looking for a cheap smartphone in 2026? That might be harder than you think.
• At a “robot park” in Seoul, you can see a motley crew of strange machines dancing to K-pop, showing off their drawing skills, and even fixing you a stiff drink. Watch the androids at work here.
• The 21st-century space race is here—but this time it’s not about putting humans on the moon.
• Boston Dynamics’ latest robot hand asks the bold question: Do we really need this one specific finger?

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This time last week...

Readers’ most-clicked story was about iOS 27 making a pretty useful update to Apple Pay.