The Download: Montana’s new experimental drug rules

<p><em>This is today&#8217;s edition of </em><a href="https://forms.technologyreview.com/newsletters/briefing-the-download/?_ga=2.179569122.736533416.1649661040-405833893.1649413289"><em>The Download</em></a>, <em>our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what&#8217;s going on in the world of technology.</em><br></p> <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Montana’s plan to become an experimental medical hub just pushed forward </strong></h3> <p>As of this week in Montana, biotech companies whose drugs have been through preliminary testing—sometimes in as few as 10 healthy people—can pay $12,500 to apply to a newly established review board for approval.</p> <p>Once its treatment is rubber-stamped, the company can sell it via experimental treatment clinics, the first of which is likely to be up and running around the end of this year. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Montana’s latest right-to-try legislation is unique. Access to drugs is theoretically available to anyone who gives informed consent and can pay. For some, especially people in the longevity community, that’s a hopeful and exciting prospect. But to others, it’s unethical and dangerous.&nbsp;</p> <p><a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/07/30/1140942/montana-experimental-medical-hub-pushed-forward-right-to-try/?utm_source=the_download&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&amp;utm_term=%3C%3C%20Test%20Class%20%3E%3E&amp;utm_content=07-31-2026&amp;mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">Read our story to learn about where this may all be headed.&nbsp;</a></p> <p><em>—Jessica Hamzelou</em></p> <p></p> <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Montana’s new “right to try” law can’t come soon enough for some </strong></h3> <p>Kris DeVault is desperate.<br><br>His son, Brody, born in March 2023, has something called creatine transporter deficiency—a rare condition in which the brain and muscles lack the energy they need to develop.</p> <p>There are no cures for Brody’s condition. But DeVault has learned of a company developing a drug that might help. That drug is still in the early stages of development and has only been tested in animals and a small number of healthy adults. Doctors can’t prescribe it.<br><br>DeVault knows the drug might not work. But he’s doing all he can to access it regardless.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/07/31/1140945/montanas-new-right-to-try-law-cant-come-soon-enough-for-some/?utm_source=the_download&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&amp;utm_term=%3C%3C%20Test%20Class%20%3E%3E&amp;utm_content=07-31-2026&amp;mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">Read our story about DeVault’s efforts.</a>&nbsp;</p> <p><em>—Jessica Hamzelou</em></p> <p><strong>This <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/07/31/1140945/montanas-new-right-to-try-law-cant-come-soon-enough-for-some/?utm_source=the_download&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&amp;utm_term=%3C%3C%20Test%20Class%20%3E%3E&amp;utm_content=07-31-2026&amp;mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">story</a> is from The Checkup, our weekly biotech newsletter. <a href="https://forms.technologyreview.com/newsletters/biotech-the-checkup/?_ga=2.27955388.1879496638.1664182320-160041263.1657781451&amp;mc_cid=a40eac2491&amp;mc_eid=f221407621&amp;utm_source=the_download&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&amp;utm_term=%3C%3C%20Test%20Class%20%3E%3E&amp;utm_content=07-31-2026&amp;mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">Sign up</a> to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.</strong><span style="font-size: revert;"></span></p> <p></p> <p class="has-medium-font-size"><strong>The must-reads</strong></p> <p><em>I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.</em></p> <p><strong>1 Anthropic says its models hacked external organisations during testing</strong><br>It was prompted to conduct a review after similar issues at OpenAI. (<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/30/anthropic-says-its-own-ai-models-breached-three-companies-during-security-tests/?mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">TechCrunch</a>)&nbsp;<br><em>+ Inside OpenAI’s hack of Hugging Face. (</em><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/inside-openai-hack-of-hugging-face?mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID"><em>New Yorker</em></a><em>&nbsp;$)</em><br><em>+ OpenAI called the Hugging Face attack unprecedented. But we’ve been here before.</em>&nbsp;(<a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/07/27/1140836/openai-hugging-face-attack-precedent/?utm_source=the_download&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&amp;utm_term=%3C%3C%20Test%20Class%20%3E%3E&amp;utm_content=07-31-2026&amp;mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">MIT Technology Review</a>)</p> <p><strong>2 Europe is bracing itself for an even more fiery future</strong><br>Countries like France and Spain can expect regimes akin to those in California. (<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02361-3?mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">Nature</a>&nbsp;$)<br><em>+ Even the UK is experiencing fires now, too.</em>&nbsp;(<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jul/30/major-incident-fire-suffolk-coast-dunwich-heath-leiston?mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">Guardian</a>)<br>+<em>&nbsp;El Niño is partly to blame for this year’s grueling heatwaves.&nbsp;</em>(<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/world-heat-wave-el-nino-to-blame/?mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">Wired</a>&nbsp;$)<br><em>+ District cooling could help beat extreme heat in cities.</em>&nbsp;(<a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2582252-is-district-cooling-the-solution-we-need-for-extreme-heat-in-cities/?mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">New Scientist</a>&nbsp;$)<br><br><strong>3 Drone warfare is making the skies more dangerous</strong><br>A fatal plane accident in the US this May, caused by a military GPS jamming exercise, may signal what’s to come. (<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/a-civilian-plane-crashed-in-new-mexico-was-the-militarys-tech-to-blame/?mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">Wired</a>$)<br><em>+ Zelensky asked Trump to secure Musk’s permission for the use of Starlink to guide drone strikes inside Russia this week.</em>&nbsp;(<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/national-security/2026/07/zelensky-asked-trump-for-a-favor-from-elon-musk/688122/?mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">The Atlantic</a>&nbsp;$)<br><br><strong>4 As Big Tech’s AI spending grows, so do the jitters</strong><br>Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft are set to invest $1.5 trillion into AI infrastructure. But who will pay for it? (<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/technology/amazon-google-ai-data-center-spending.html?mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">NYT</a>&nbsp;$)<br>+&nbsp;<em>Are investors really getting cold feet about the AI boom?&nbsp;</em>(<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/00d91e68-9508-42bd-b1e3-124bf7dd390b?syn-25a6b1a6=1&amp;mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">FT</a>&nbsp;$)<br>+&nbsp;<em>An AI-focused hedge fund just imploded</em>. (<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/30/leopold-aschenbrenners-hedge-fund-is-facing-steep-ai-losses.html?mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">CNBC</a>)<br><br><strong>5 How China has changed the sovereign AI playbook</strong><br>Kimi 3 from Moonshot makes forking out for expensive US models seem foolish. (<a href="https://restofworld.org/2026/china-moonshot-kimi-k3-free-sovereign-ai/?mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">Rest of World</a>)<br>+<em>&nbsp;The US is winning on the cutting edge. But China dominates cheap models.</em>&nbsp;(<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/30/us-wants-asia-to-use-its-ai-but-china-dominates-cheaper-models.html?mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">CNBC</a>)<br>+&nbsp;<em>Could AI end up too cheap to control?&nbsp;</em>(<a href="https://www.vox.com/technology/497100/chinese-ai-models-kimi-qwen-claude-chatgpt?mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">Vox</a>&nbsp;$)</p> <p><strong>6 Google’s Gemini can now control a humanoid robot</strong><br>It was previously restricted to upper body movements. Now, it can manage the entire range of motion. (<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-30/google-unveils-gemini-ai-for-robots-struggling-with-dexterity?mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">Bloomberg</a>&nbsp;$)<br>+&nbsp;<em>These gig workers are training humanoid robots at home.</em>&nbsp;(<a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/04/01/1134863/humanoid-data-training-gig-economy-2026-breakthrough-technology/?utm_source=the_download&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&amp;utm_term=%3C%3C%20Test%20Class%20%3E%3E&amp;utm_content=07-31-2026&amp;mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">MIT Technology Review</a>)<br><br><strong>7 Amazon says it’s found “catastrophically expensive” AI cost overruns</strong><br>It’s far from alone—and that’s why the “tokenmaxxing” trend disappeared so quickly. (<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/77baac40-d803-4084-94f3-a133653072cf?syn-25a6b1a6=1&amp;mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">FT</a>&nbsp;$)</p> <p><strong>8 How a&nbsp;remote indigenous community built a super fast&nbsp;fiber network</strong><br>It was a complex, expensive endeavor. But it now outperforms Starlink. (<a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/indigenous-fiber-network?mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">IEEE Spectrum</a>)&nbsp;<br>+&nbsp;<em>Stratospheric internet could finally start taking off this year.</em>&nbsp;(<a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/01/27/1131780/stratospheric-internet-take-off/?utm_source=the_download&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&amp;utm_term=%3C%3C%20Test%20Class%20%3E%3E&amp;utm_content=07-31-2026&amp;mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MIT Technology Review</a>)</p> <p><strong>9 Meet Wikipedia’s most diligent editor</strong><br>Steven Pruitt is unremarkable in some ways—yet truly amazing in others. (<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-lede/the-accidental-architect-of-the-internets-brain?mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">New Yorker</a>&nbsp;$)</p> <p><strong>10 You can now report AI slop with a button on LinkedIn</strong><br>The people have spoken. And they are tired of reading bland nonsense. (<a href="https://www.404media.co/linkedin-introduces-a-seems-like-ai-slop-button/?mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">404 Media</a>)</p> <p></p> <p><strong>Quote of the day</strong></p> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">&#8220;It’s a shock, thinking that just an hour earlier I’d been in my room and everything… and now, there’s nothing left.”</h2> <p>—18-year-old Raphael Fohanno tells <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/france-spain-fight-contain-wildfires-temperatures-soar-again-2026-07-29/?mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">Reuters</a> his reaction to wildfires destroying his parents’ house in the French town of Biscarrosse.</p> <p></p> <p><strong>One More Thing</strong></p> <div class="wp-block-image"> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" width="3000" height="1687" src="https://wp.technologyreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/MA25-ota-01.jpg?w=840" alt="&quot;&quot;" class="wp-image-1111625" srcset="https://wp.technologyreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/MA25-ota-01.jpg 3000w, https://wp.technologyreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/MA25-ota-01.jpg?resize=300,169 300w, https://wp.technologyreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/MA25-ota-01.jpg?resize=768,432 768w, https://wp.technologyreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/MA25-ota-01.jpg?resize=1536,864 1536w, https://wp.technologyreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/MA25-ota-01.jpg?resize=2048,1152 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 3000px) 100vw, 3000px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Some of the 750 reports published by the OTA during its 23-year history.</figcaption><div class="image-credit">GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE VIA PRINCETON UNIVERSITY</div> </figure> </div> <p><strong>Congress used to evaluate emerging technologies. Let’s do it again.</strong></p> <p>The US Office of Technology Assessment, an independent office created by Congress in the early 1970s, produced some 750 reports during its 23-year history, assessing technologies as varied as electronic surveillance, genetic engineering, and remote sensing from outer space.&nbsp;</p> <p>The office functioned like a debunking arm. It sussed out the snake oil. Its reports saw through the alluring gleam of overhyped technologies.&nbsp;</p> <p>Since its unceremonious defunding in 1995, perennial calls have gone out: Rouse the office from the dead!&nbsp;</p> <p><a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/02/19/1111573/congress-office-technology-assessment-emerging-innovation/?utm_source=the_download&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&amp;utm_term=%3C%3C%20Test%20Class%20%3E%3E&amp;utm_content=07-31-2026&amp;mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">Read our story about why, with advances in robotics, big data, and AI systems, these calls have taken on a new level of urgency.&nbsp;</a></p> <p><em>—Peter Andrey Smith</em></p> <p></p> <p class="has-medium-font-size"><strong>We can still have nice things</strong></p> <p><em>A place for comfort, fun, and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? </em><a href="mailto:[email protected]"><em>Drop me a line</em></a><em>.)</em></p> <p>+ <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DZyKwiZRTBD/?mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">Fencing on roller skates</a> is the self-defense you didn’t know you needed.<br>+  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a3bSwXZpZY&amp;mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">Meet Pumpkin</a>, a chubby cat that’s in no mood to lose weight.<br>+ Discover what the animals near you are probably doing right now at <a href="https://naturethisweek.com/?mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">Nature This Week</a>.<br>+ Woodworker extraordinaire Matt Thompson has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf2cKSTS9fw&amp;mc_cid=8103437da0&amp;mc_eid=UNIQID">installed a model railroad that runs along his fence</a>. </p> <p></p>