Conditions: Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD)
Interventions: Behavioral: Ai chatbot
Sponsors: Stockholm University
Active, not recruiting
Interventions: Behavioral: Ai chatbot
Sponsors: Stockholm University
Active, not recruiting
Venous Tourniquet vs. Arterial Tourniquet for Seizure Monitoring in ECT
Conditions: Major Depressive Disorder; Bipolar Disorder; Schizophrenia
Interventions: Device: Device: Arterial Tourniquet; Device: Device: Venous Tourniquet
Sponsors: Medipol University
Not yet recruiting
Interventions: Device: Device: Arterial Tourniquet; Device: Device: Venous Tourniquet
Sponsors: Medipol University
Not yet recruiting
The Download: NASA’s nuclear spacecraft and unveiling our AI 10
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.
NASA is building the first nuclear reactor-powered interplanetary spacecraft. How will it work?
Just before Artemis II began its historic slingshot around the moon, NASA revealed an even grander space travel plan. By the end of 2028, the agency aims to fly a nuclear reactor-powered interplanetary spacecraft to Mars.
A successful mission would herald a new era in spaceflight—and might just give the US the edge in the race against China. But the project remains shrouded in mystery.
MIT Technology Review picked the brains of nuclear power and propulsion experts to find out how the nuclear-powered spacecraft might work. Here’s what we discovered.
—Robin George Andrews
This story is part of MIT Technology Review Explains, our series untangling the complex, messy world of technology to help you understand what’s coming next. You can read more from the series here.
Coming soon: our 10 Things That Matter in AI Right Now
Each year, we compile our 10 Breakthrough Technologies list, featuring our educated predictions for which technologies will change the world. Our 2026 list, however, was harder to wrangle than normal. Why? We had so many worthy AI candidates we couldn’t fit them all in!
That got us thinking: what if we made an entirely new list all about AI? Before we knew it, we had the beginnings of what we’re calling 10 Things That Matter in AI Right Now.
On April 21, we’ll unveil the list on stage at our signature AI conference, EmTech AI, and then publish it online later that day. If you want to be among the first to see it, join us at EmTech AI or become a subscriber to livestream the announcement.
Find out more about the list’s methodology and aims here.
—Niall Firth & Amy Nordrum
MIT Technology Review Narrated: this company is developing gene therapies for muscle growth, erectile dysfunction, and “radical longevity”
In January, a handful of volunteers were injected with two experimental gene therapies as part of an unusual clinical trial. Its long-term goal? To achieve radical human life extension.
The therapies are designed to support muscle growth. The company behind them, Unlimited Bio, also plans to trial similar therapies in the scalp (for baldness) and penis (for erectile dysfunction). But some experts are concerned about the plans.
Find out why the trial has divided opinion.
—Jessica Hamzelou
This is our latest story to be turned into an MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it’s released.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Google, Microsoft, and Meta track users even when they opt out
According to an independent audit, they may be racking up billions in fines. (404 Media)
+ How our digital devices put our privacy at risk. (Ars Technica)
+ Privacy’s next frontier is AI “memories.” (MIT Technology Review)
2 OpenAI has a new cybersecurity model—and strategy
GPT-5.4-Cyber is designed specifically for defensive cybersecurity work. (Reuters $)
+ OpenAI has joined Anthropic in focusing on cybersecurity recently. (Wired $)
+ Like Anthopic, its latest model is only available to verified testers. (NYT $)
+ AI is already making online crimes easier. It could get much worse. (MIT Technology Review)
3 Amazon is buying satellite firm Globalstar in a bid to rival Starlink
The $11.6 billion deal targets the lucrative satellite internet market. (WSJ $)
+ Apple has chosen Amazon satellites for iPhone. (Ars Technica)
4 What it’s like to live with an experimental brain implant
Early BCI users explain what the technology gives—and takes. (IEEE)
+ A patient with Neuralink got a boost from generative AI. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Dozens of AI disease-prediction models were trained on dubious data
A few might already have been used on patients. (Nature)
6 Uber is breaking from its gig economy model to avoid robotaxi disruption
It’s spending $10 billion to buy thousands of autonomous vehicles. (FT $)
7 xAI is being sued over data center pollution
Musk’s AI venture stands accused by the NAACP of violating the Clean Air Act. (Engadget)
+ No one wants a data center in their backyard. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Apple could win the AI race without running
It may reap the rewards of everyone else’s spending. (Axios)
9 How 4chan set a precedent for AI’s reasoning abilities
The notorious forum tested a feature called “chain of thought.” (The Atlantic $)
10 The surprising emotional toll of wearing Meta’s AI sunglasses
Their shortcomings are making users sad. (NYT $)
Quote of the day
“Everything got a whole lot worse once they rolled out AI.”
—A copywriter tells the Guardian that they’re drowning in “workslop” — AI-generated work that seems polished but has major flaws
One More Thing
GETTY IMAGES
How refrigeration ruined fresh food
Bananas may not be chilled in the grocery store, but they’re the ultimate refrigerated fruit. It’s only thanks to a network of thermal control that they’ve become a global commodity. And that salad bag on the shelf? It’s not just a bag but a highly engineered respiratory apparatus.
According to Nicola Twilley—a contributor to the New Yorker and cohost of the podcast Gastropod—refrigeration has wrecked our food system. Thankfully, there are promising alternative preservation methods.
Read the full story on her research.
—Allison Arieff
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.)
+ Spotify only shows 10 popular songs per artist. This tool lists them all.
+ These GIF animations are mesmerizing loops of nostalgia.
+ This site beautifully visualizes Curiosity’s 13 years on Mars.
+ A retro-futurist designer has turned a NES console into a working synthesizer.
An inducible base editing platform for cancer functional genomics in vivo
Nature Biotechnology, Published online: 15 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41587-026-03079-3
We developed a functional genomics platform using a small-molecule-controllable base editor that enables gene editing with reduced cellular toxicity and minimal transcriptional perturbation. The resulting high efficiency of the method potentiates in vivo inducible genetic screening, allowing systematic identification of critical residues in cancer therapeutic targets.
Can psychiatric genetics advance without incorporating a lifecourse perspective?
Psychiatric disorders unfold over the lifecourse, yet genomic studies of these conditions overwhelmingly rely on phenotypes collected at a single time point, often in adulthood. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of psychiatric conditions may therefore miss genetic variants with time-varied relevance to etiology, prevention and treatment, such as those that influence trajectories of symptoms and behaviors, age-at-onset, course of treatment response, and co-evolution of comorbidities. With recent advances in longitudinal biobanks and analytic tools, we posit that incorporating a lifecourse perspective in psychiatric genetics will enable critically relevant insights into each of these areas of investigation.
Baseline Mismatch Negativity Amplitude Predicts Direction and Magnitude of Ketamine Effect in Healthy Volunteers — A “Disordinal” Effect
Mismatch negativity (MMN) is a component of the auditory event-related potential (ERP) that is elicited during a passive oddball paradigm where task-irrelevant infrequent deviants are presented in a stream of more frequent standard stimuli. MMN is believed to index a pre-attentive stage of auditory information processing closely linked to N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDAR) function. Ketamine is thought to act primarily as an NMDAR antagonist, has been used in clinical trials to model the symptoms of schizophrenia and is increasingly used in the clinic to treat depression.
[Comment] Assessing adolescents’ use of artificial intelligence in psychiatric practice
In a recent clinical encounter with one of the authors (AP), a young boy with autism insisted that his mother hated him—because ChatGPT said so. After asking whether a parent who sets limits must dislike their child, he interpreted the bot’s confident, literal response as truth. By the time the boy arrived at the clinic, this exchange had already reshaped his affect, relationships, and risk. Encounters like this are increasingly common, and many adolescents now present with beliefs—and sometimes safety concerns—influenced by generative artificial intelligence (AI).
[Comment] Youth mental health in central Asia: research needs
Little research has been published on mental health difficulties in young people (aged 10–24 years) living in central Asia,1 a region comprising Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. As researchers and representatives from academic, non-governmental, governmental, and UN organisations working in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan and beyond, we are noting an increasing number of young people reporting emotional and behavioural symptoms in central Asia in published articles2 and from our own observations.
[Comment] Magnetic seizure therapy: balancing efficacy and cognition
Few treatments in psychiatry match the antidepressant efficacy of convulsive therapy. Yet despite this therapeutic potency, persistent stigma and concerns about cognitive adverse effects—particularly autobiographical memory disturbance associated with electroconvulsive therapy, ECT—continue to limit its wider adoption.1 This tension is especially consequential in treatment-resistant depression (TRD), where convulsive therapies remain among the most effective treatments.2
Determinants of Digital Health Literacy Among Patients With Serious Mental Illness: Cross-Sectional Survey
Background: Individuals with serious mental illness increasingly use digital devices and the internet to access health information and services but often face challenges when navigating digital tools, which may limit the benefits they receive from online health resources and digital health care services. Objective: The objective of our study was to assess digital health literacy among individuals with serious mental illness and identify factors influencing this literacy. Methods: Participants were recruited, using convenience sampling, from 2 psychiatric clinics, 1 day-care center, and 4 halfway houses in Taipei, Taiwan, between May 2024 and February 2025. Self-reported data were collected using a survey that incorporated the eHealth Literacy Scale, the Attitudes Toward Computer/Internet Questionnaire, and the Mobile Device Proficiency Questionnaire. Generalized linear modeling was applied to identify factors associated with digital health literacy. Results: Among 255 participants included in the analysis, 83.5% (n=213) reported owning at least 1 digital device. Digital health literacy was significantly lower among individuals who reported greater perceived difficulty in using digital tools (=−1.533, 95% CI −2.350 to −0.717; <.001) and higher distrust in online information (=−0.986, 95% CI −1.916 to −0.056; =.04). By contrast, greater mobile device proficiency (=0.144, 95% CI 0.008‐0.281; =.04) and self-efficacy (=1.777, 95% CI 0.376‐3.177; =.01) were positively associated with digital health literacy. Conclusions: Despite widespread device ownership, digital health literacy was varied and generally suboptimal among patients with serious mental illness. Perceived difficulty and distrust emerged as major barriers; proficiency and self-efficacy facilitated higher literacy. These findings highlight the need for mental health professionals to integrate tailored digital skills training, confidence-building strategies, and ongoing support into digital health interventions for individuals with serious mental illnesses.
