🚀 Get started with Corona → https://bit.ly/chaos_corona Learn everything about the new Corona 13 features from our release blog post: https://www.chaos.com/blog/corona-13 It’s here! The latest version of Corona provides a new set of artist-friendly features that make perfect renders and speedy animations more accessible, and enjoyable, than ever. From toon shading to GPU-accelerated animations and AI-powered image enhancements. Corona 13 goes beyond photorealism with more creative control and faster workflows for 3D artists and visualizers.

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.Tech billionaires are making a risky bet with humanity’s future Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and others may have slightly different goals, but their grand visions for the next decade and beyond are remarkably similar.They include aligning AI with the interests of humanity; creating an artificial superintelligence that will solve all the world’s most pressing problems; merging with that superintelligence to achieve immortality (or something close to it); establishing a permanent, self-­sustaining colony on Mars; and, ultimately, spreading out across the cosmos.Three features play a central role with powering these visions, says Adam Becker, a science writer and astrophysicist: an unshakable certainty that technology can solve any problem, a belief in the necessity of perpetual growth, and a quasi-religious obsession with transcending our physical and biological limits.In his timely new book, More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley’s Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity, Becker reveals how these fantastical visions conceal a darker agenda. Read the full story. —Bryan Gardiner This story is from the next print edition of MIT Technology Review, which explores power—who has it, and who wants it. It’s set to go live on Wednesday June 25, so subscribe & save 25% to read it and get a copy of the issue when it lands! Here’s what food and drug regulation might look like under the Trump administration Earlier this week, two new leaders of the US Food and Drug Administration published a list of priorities for the agency. Both Marty Makary and Vinay Prasad are controversial figures in the science community. They were generally highly respected academics until the covid pandemic, when their contrarian opinions on masking, vaccines, and lockdowns turned many of their colleagues off them. Given all this, along with recent mass firings of FDA employees, lots of people were pretty anxious to see what this list might include—and what we might expect the future of food and drug regulation in the US to look like. So let’s dive into the pair’s plans for new investigations, speedy approvals, and the “unleashing” of AI. —Jessica Hamzelou This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 NASA is investigating leaks on the ISSIt’s postponed launching private astronauts to the station while it evaluates. (WP $)+ Its core component has been springing small air leaks for months. (Reuters)+ Meanwhile, this Chinese probe is en route to a near-Earth asteroid. (Wired $) 2 Undocumented migrants are using social media to warn of ICE raidsThe DIY networks are anonymously reporting police presences across LA. (Wired $)+ Platforms’ relationships with protest activism has changed drastically. (NY Mag $)  3 Google’s AI Overviews is hallucinating about the fatal Air India crashIt incorrectly stated that it involved an Airbus plane, not a Boeing 787. (Ars Technica)+ Why Google’s AI Overviews gets things wrong. (MIT Technology Review) 4 Chinese engineers are sneaking suitcases of hard drives into the countryTo covertly train advanced AI models. (WSJ $)+ The US is cracking down on Huawei’s ability to produce chips. (Bloomberg $)+ What the US-China AI race overlooks. (Rest of World) 5 The National Hurricane Center is joining forces with DeepMindIt’s the first time the center has used AI to predict nature’s worst storms. (NYT $)+ Here’s what we know about hurricanes and climate change. (MIT Technology Review) 6 OpenAI is working on a product with toymaker MattelAI-powered Barbies?! (FT $)+ Nothing is safe from the creep of AI, not even playtime. (LA Times $)+ OpenAI has ambitions to reach billions of users. (Bloomberg $) 7 Chatbots posing as licensed therapists may be breaking the lawDigital rights organizations have filed a complaint to the FTC. (404 Media)+ How do you teach an AI model to give therapy? (MIT Technology Review) 8 Major companies are abandoning their climate commitmentsBut some experts argue this may not be entirely bad. (Bloomberg $)+ Google, Amazon and the problem with Big Tech’s climate claims. (MIT Technology Review) 9 Vibe coding is shaking up software engineeringEven though AI-generated code is inherently unreliable. (Wired $)+ What is vibe coding, exactly? (MIT Technology Review) 10 TikTok really loves hotdogs And who can blame it? (Insider $) Quote of the day “It kind of jams two years of work into two months.” —Andrew Butcher, president of the Maine Connectivity Authority, tells Ars Technica why it’s so difficult to meet the Trump administration’s new plans to increase broadband access in certain states. One more thing The surprising barrier that keeps us from building the housing we needIt’s a tough time to try and buy a home in America. From the beginning of the pandemic to early 2024, US home prices rose by 47%. In large swaths of the country, buying a home is no longer a possibility even for those with middle-class incomes. For many, that marks the end of an American dream built around owning a house. Over the same time, rents have gone up 26%.The reason for the current rise in the cost of housing is clear to most economists: a lack of supply. Simply put, we don’t build enough houses and apartments, and we haven’t for years. But the reality is that even if we ease the endless permitting delays and begin cutting red tape, we will still be faced with a distressing fact: The construction industry is not very efficient when it comes to building stuff. Read the full story. —David Rotman We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.) + If you’re one of the unlucky people who has triskaidekaphobia, look away now.+ 15-year old Nicholas is preparing to head from his home in the UK to Japan to become a professional sumo wrestler.+ Earlier this week, London played host to 20,000 women in bald caps. But why? ($)+ Why do dads watch TV standing up? I need to know.

Arc, the much-hyped privacy-forward internet browser, won't be getting any more new features. This fact was announced months ago by its developer, The Browser Company, and clarified yesterday in a blog post in which the venture capital-backed entity that built Arc announced plans to focus on an as yet unreleased AI-based browser instead.For now, Arc will still be getting security updates, most of them inherited from the open-source Chromium project, but it's understandable that some dedicated Arc users may be looking for an alternative, and I know of a good one: the open source Zen Browser, currently in beta.Zen is beautiful in the same way Arc is, with its elegant vertical tabs located on the left side. Like Arc, it supports multiple workspaces and offers a compact mode with no toolbars or tabs. It also offers theming, split view, and link previews. Even better, it's built on the same browser engine as Firefox—and not Chromium—meaning it supports legitimate ad and privacy blockers like uBlock Origin. One Arc feature Zen lacks is any kind of AI integration; whether that's a downside or an upside will depend on your feelings about AI in your browsing experience.How to get started with the Zen BrowserWhen you install Zen it will offer to import your bookmarks, history, and even your passwords from another browser on your system. It then ask you to choose a color scheme, and select the key tabs you'd like to pin to the top of your workspaces(). After that you can start browsing the internet, just the way you're used to. Arc users won't need to adjust much when switching to Zen—I daresay everything will feel pretty familiar. (I personally appreciate that it shares the the command bar approach to typing addresses or searching, as it saves space when compared to an address bar that's constantly taking up space whether you're typing into it or not.) Credit: Justin Pot There are a couple of ways to customize Zen. In the settings you can choose between a single, multiple, or collapsed toolbar. If you want more fine tuning, there are Zen Mods, community-made plugins that let you customize all sorts of things about the user interface. More importantly, the browser offers full support for Firefox extensions, meaning you can also browse the Firefox Extensions gallery and install anything you want. Credit: Justin Pot The bottom line: Zen is a clean, speedy alternative browser. If you like Firefox but hate its UI, I recommend checking it out, and the same goes for anyone seeking an alternative to Arc that is still actively being developed.

Picking the best class to start with in Elden Ring Nightreign is the first meaningful decision you’ll make — and if you’ve any experience with FromSoftware games, it’s one you might spend time fretting over too.Elden Ring Nightreign features eight playable classes (called Nightfarers), each with their own predetermined passive skills, character-specific abilities, and ultimate arts that can turn the tide of battle. And while all Nightreign players will start out as the Wylder, once you begin your first expedition, you’ll have immediate access to six classes: Executor, Guardian, Ironeye, Raider, Recluse, and Wylder. (You can unlock two additional Nightfarers, the Duchess and Revenant, as you complete expeditions and specific challenges.)But what’s the best class to start with in Elden Ring Nightreign? While it largely depends on your playstyle, this Elden Ring Nightreign guide will help you figure it out.Best class to start with in Elden Ring NightreignImage: FromSoftware/Bandai NamcoFor your first expedition, we recommend starting with the Ironeye or Wylder.Ironeye is an archer-style class with high Dexterity and Arcane attributes. As a ranged fighter, Ironeye can target enemies from distance and attack from the safety of high ground. While relatively weak on his own, Ironeye can complement a team by providing support from afar, and marking enemies to make them more susceptible to damage and being staggered. Plus, if one of your allies goes down in the middle of a fight, you can help raise them from near-death from afar, firing arrows (or your ultimate art) at them to get them back on their feet.Ironeye is also one of the least complicated characters to play as. You don’t have to worry about managing their FP — you really only need to focus on stamina and HP — and tracking down a good bow.Nightreign’s Wylder is also a good starting choice, in part because he’s a jack of all trades and can “cheat death” for extra survivability. Just a good ol’ sword-and-shield guy, Wylder has high HP, high Strength, and solid Stamina, making him a natural fit for seasoned Souls players.Wylder’s Claw Shot character skill is useful for quickly moving him close to enemies and for breaking their guard. His ultimate, Onslaught Stake, is a simple, satisfying, damage-dealing explosion that offers a straightforward way to wipe out substantial chunks of big enemies’ HP.After you get your feet wet with Nightfarers like Ironeye and Wylder, try out tankier classes like the Raider and Guardian, or the speedy, backstabbing Duchess, who you’ll be able to unlock after defeating your first Nightlord.Hardest class to start with in Elden Ring NightreignImage: FromSoftware/Bandai NamcoThe most complex Nightfarer starting character classes are the Executor and Recluse.Executor looks extremely cool and deals a ton of damage output, and his ultimate art — in which he transforms into a giant primordial beast — can be a game-changer. But Executor has low survivability, and his character skill, which can deflect enemy attacks, requires some practice to master.Recluse is a spellcaster/mixologist who can craft 14 different spells using magical “residues” from enemies, then attack enemies and buff her allies. As a ranged damage-dealer with low HP, she’s a good pick for players who may eventually get bored playing as Ironeye and want to try a more interesting and in-depth Nightfarer.Of course, regardless of what class you pick, we highly recommend visiting the Sparring Grounds — a low-stakes training area — so you can try out different Nightfarers without the pressure of holding your teammates back in an expedition.For more Elden Ring Nightreign guides, here’s how to unlock the Duchess and Revenant classes, plus explainers on where to find Smithing Stones and all church locations.See More: