The Download: DeepSeek forces a reality check, and robotaxis’ future

Just a week in, the AI sector has already seen its first battle of wits under the new Trump administration. The clash stems from two key pieces of news: the announcement of the Stargate project, which would spend $500 billion—more than the Apollo space program—on new AI data centers, and the release of a powerful new open-source model from China.

Together, they raise important questions the industry needs to answer about the extent to which the race for more data centers—with their heavy environmental toll—is really necessary. 

If, in dissecting DeepSeek R1, AI companies discover some lessons about how to make models use existing resources more effectively, perhaps constructing more and more data centers won’t be the only winning formula for better AI. Read the full story.

—James O’Donnell

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here.

Robotaxis: 10 Breakthrough Technologies 2025

If you live in certain cities in America or China, you’ve probably spotted driverless cars dropping off passengers. Perhaps you’ve even ridden in one yourself. That’s a radical change from even three years ago, when these services were still learning the rules of the road. And robotaxis could soon be operating in many more cities.

After years of beta testing, driverless taxis are now finally becoming available to the public. In more than a dozen cities worldwide, riders can summon one whenever they want. Now, the biggest players are ramping up for intense competition as they expand into new cities under regulators’ watchful eyes. Read the full story.

—Rhiannon Williams