Just a few months after Elon Musk’s retreat from his unofficial role leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), we have a clearer picture of his vision of government powered by artificial intelligence, and it has a lot more to do with consolidating power than benefitting the public. Even so, we must not lose sight of the fact that a different administration could wield the same technology to advance a more positive future for AI in government.

To most on the American left, the DOGE end game is a dystopic vision of a government run by machines that benefits an elite few at the expense of the people. It includes AI ...

"I wanted to choke some people," Cameron Hamilton said in a podcast interview last week.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said he would promote natural gas during his upcoming trip to Europe.

Major transportation systems are cutting bus and rail service in an effort to stay afloat.

The potential is enormous. So are the hurdles of getting the water out and puzzling over who owns it, who uses it and how to extract it.

A nascent carbon market faces questions about whether it reduces emissions and if nations are unfairly getting credit for climate projects.

The bloc’s biggest players want to delay a vote on the 2040 emissions-cutting milestone.

More than 1,900 fires have been sparked across the EU, scorching a record 3,806 square miles.

With some 4 million people now living in Dubai, compared with around 255,000 in 1980, pressure on water consumption continues.

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 08 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02433-8

Election and policy inaction

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 08 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02431-w

Activity changes during heatwaves

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 08 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02432-9

Unpredictable impacts of previous stress

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 08 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02430-x

Understanding unexpected slowdown

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 08 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02440-9

Terrestrial ecosystems take up approximately a third of anthropogenically emitted carbon and are a key component of climate mitigation strategies. However, recent evidence indicates constraints on land-based carbon uptake and mitigation potential.

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 08 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02398-8

Few studies have evaluated how climate change may affect dietary habits and nutritional health. Here, using transaction data in the USA, the authors show that added sugar consumption increases with temperature, especially between 12 °C and 30 °C, with stronger effects among lower-income and lower-education groups.

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 08 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02426-7

Scientists increasingly assess interventions against misinformation mainly via truth discernment. However, pursuing truth discernment may not be sufficiently beneficial to society if interventions do not improve behaviour and other outcomes.

Artificial intelligence optimization offers a host of benefits for mechanical engineers, including faster and more accurate designs and simulations, improved efficiency, reduced development costs through process automation, and enhanced predictive maintenance and quality control.

“When people think about mechanical engineering, they're thinking about basic mechanical tools like hammers and … hardware like cars, robots, cranes, but mechanical engineering is very broad,” says Faez Ahmed, the Doherty Chair in Ocean Utilization and associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. “Within mechanical engineering, machine learning, AI, and optimization are playing a big role.”

In Ahmed’s course, 2.155/156 (AI and Machine Learning for Engineering Design), students use tools and techniques from artificial intelligence and machine learning for mechanical engineering design, focusing on the creation of new products and addressing engineering design challenges.

“There’s a lot of reason for mechanical engineers to think about machine learning and AI to essentially expedite the design process,” says Lyle Regenwetter, a teaching assistant for the course and a PhD candidate in Ahmed’s Design Computation and Digital Engineering Lab (DeCoDE), where research focuses on developing new machine learning and optimization methods to study complex engineering design problems.

First offered in 2021, the class has quickly become one of the Department of Mechanical Engineering (MechE)’s most popular non-core offerings, attracting students from departments across the Institute, including mechanical and civil and environmental engineering, aeronautics and astronautics, the MIT Sloan School of Management, and nuclear and computer science, along with cross-registered students from Harvard University and other schools.

The course, which is open to both undergraduate and graduate students, focuses on the implementation of advanced machine learning and optimization strategies in the context of real-world mechanical design problems. From designing bike frames to city grids, students participate in contests related to AI for physical systems and tackle optimization challenges in a class environment fueled by friendly competition.

Students are given challenge problems and starter code that “gave a solution, but [not] the best solution …” explains Ilan Moyer, a graduate student in MechE. “Our task was to [determine], how can we do better?” Live leaderboards encourage students to continually refine their methods.

Em Lauber, a system design and management graduate student, says the process gave space to explore the application of what students were learning and the practice skill of “literally how to code it.”

The curriculum incorporates discussions on research papers, and students also pursue hands-on exercises in machine learning tailored to specific engineering issues including robotics, aircraft, structures, and metamaterials. For their final project, students work together on a team project that employs AI techniques for design on a complex problem of their choice.

“It is wonderful to see the diverse breadth and high quality of class projects,” says Ahmed. “Student projects from this course often lead to research publications, and have even led to awards.” He cites the example of a recent paper, titled “GenCAD-Self-Repairing,” that went on to win the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Systems Engineering, Information and Knowledge Management 2025 Best Paper Award.

“The best part about the final project was that it gave every student the opportunity to apply what they’ve learned in the class to an area that interests them a lot,” says Malia Smith, a graduate student in MechE. Her project chose “markered motion captured data” and looked at predicting ground force for runners, an effort she called “really gratifying” because it worked so much better than expected.

Lauber took the framework of a “cat tree” design with different modules of poles, platforms, and ramps to create customized solutions for individual cat households, while Moyer created software that is designing a new type of 3D printer architecture.

“When you see machine learning in popular culture, it’s very abstracted, and you have the sense that there’s something very complicated going on,” says Moyer. “This class has opened the curtains.” 

New research (paywalled):

Editor’s summary:

Cephalopods are one of the most successful marine invertebrates in modern oceans, and they have a 500-million-year-old history. However, we know very little about their evolution because soft-bodied animals rarely fossilize. Ikegami et al. developed an approach to reveal squid fossils, focusing on their beaks, the sole hard component of their bodies. They found that squids radiated rapidly after shedding their shells, reaching high levels of diversity by 100 million years ago. This finding shows both that squid body forms led to early success and that their radiation was not due to the end-Cretaceous extinction event...

I am pleased to announce the imminent publication of my latest book, Rewiring Democracy: How AI will Transform our Politics, Government, and Citizenship: coauthored with Nathan Sanders, and published by MIT Press on October 21.

Rewriting Democracy looks beyond common tropes like deepfakes to examine how AI technologies will affect democracy in five broad areas: politics, legislating, administration, the judiciary, and citizenship. There is a lot to unpack here, both positive and negative. We do talk about AI’s possible role in both democratic backsliding or restoring democracies, but the fundamental focus of the book is on present and future uses of AIs within functioning democracies. (And there is a lot going on, in both national and local governments around the world.) And, yes, we talk about AI-driven propaganda and artificial conversation...

In 1992 EFF presented our very first awards recognizing key leaders and organizations advancing innovation and championing civil liberties and human rights online. Now in 2025 we're continuing to celebrate the accomplishments of people working toward a better future for everyone with the EFF Awards!

All are invited to attend the EFF Awards on Wednesday, September 10 at the San Francisco Design Center. Whether you're an activist, an EFF supporter, a student interested in cyberlaw, or someone who wants to munch on a strolling dinner with other likeminded individuals, anyone can enjoy the ceremony!

REGISTER TODAY!

GENERAL ADMISSION: $55 | CURRENT EFF MEMBERS: $45 | STUDENTS: $35

If you're not able to make it, we'll also be hosting a livestream of the event on Friday, September 12 at 12:00 PM PT. The event will also be recorded, and posted to YouTube and the Internet Archive after the livestream.

We are honored to present the three winners of this year's EFF Awards: Just Futures Law, Erie Meyer, and Software Freedom Law Center, India. But, before we kick off the ceremony next week, let's take a closer look at each of the honorees. And last, but certainly not least—Software Freedom Law Center, India, winner of the EFF Award for Defending Digital Freedoms:

Software Freedom Law Center, India is a donor-supported legal services organization based in India that brings together lawyers, policy analysts, students, and technologists to protect freedom in the digital world. It promotes innovation and open access to knowledge by helping developers make great free and open-source software, protects privacy and civil liberties for Indians by educating and providing free legal advice, and helps policymakers make informed and just decisions about use of technology. SFLC.IN tracks and participates in litigation, AI regulations, and free speech issues that are defining Indian technology. It also tracks internet shutdowns and censorship incidents across India, provides digital security training, and has launched the Digital Defenders Network, a pan-Indian network of lawyers committed to protecting digital rights. It has conducted landmark litigation cases, petitioned the government of India on freedom of expression and internet issues, and campaigned for WhatsApp and Facebook to fix a feature of their platform that has been used to harass women in India. 

We're excited to celebrate SFLC.IN and the other EFF Award winners in person in San Francisco on September 10! We hope that you'll join us there.

Thank you to Fastly, DuckDuckGo, Corellium, and No Starch Press for their year-round support of EFF's mission.

Want to show your team’s support for EFF? Sponsorships ensure we can continue hosting events like this to build community among digital rights supporters. Please visit eff.org/thanks or contact tierney@eff.org for more information on corporate giving and sponsorships.

EFF is dedicated to a harassment-free experience for everyone, and all participants are encouraged to view our full Event Expectations.

Questions? Email us at events@eff.org.