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The Download: how to melt rocks, and what you need to know about AI

Rhiannon Williams

created: July 22, 2025, 12:10 p.m. | updated: July 25, 2025, 12:20 p.m.

Geothermal startup Quaise certainly has an unconventional approach when it comes to destroying rocks: it uses a new form of drilling technology to melt holes through them. The company hopes it’s the key to unlocking geothermal energy and making it feasible anywhere. Quaise’s technology could theoretically be used to tap into the Earth’s heat from anywhere on the globe. —Casey CrownhartFive things you need to know about AI right now—Will Douglas Heaven, senior editor for AILast month I gave a talk at SXSW London called “Five things you need to know about AI”—my personal picks for the five most important ideas in AI right now. I aimed the talk at a general audience, and it serves as a quick tour of how I’m thinking about AI in 2025.

4 months, 3 weeks ago: MIT Technology Review