The Download: how people fall for pig butchering schemes, and saving glaciers

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. Inside a romance scam compound—and how people get tricked into being there Gavesh’s journey had started, seemingly innocently, with a job ad on Facebook promising work he desperately needed.Instead, he found himself trafficked into a business commonly known as “pig butchering”—a form of fraud in which scammers form romantic or other close relationships with targets online and extract money from them. The Chinese crime syndicates behind the scams have netted billions of dollars, and they have used violence and coercion to force their workers, many of them people trafficked like Gavesh, to carry out the frauds from large compounds, several of which operate openly in the quasi-lawless borderlands of Myanmar. We spoke to Gavesh and five other workers from inside the scam industry, as well as anti-trafficking experts and technology specialists. Their testimony reveals how global companies, including American social media and dating apps and international cryptocurrency and messaging platforms, have given the fraud business the means to become industrialized.  By the same token, it is Big Tech that may hold the key to breaking up the scam syndicates—if only these companies can be persuaded or compelled to act. Read the full story. —Peter Guest & Emily Fishbein How to save a glacier There’s a lot we don’t understand about how glaciers move and how soon some of the most significant ones could collapse into the sea. That could be a problem, since melting glaciers could lead to multiple feet of sea-level rise this century, potentially displacing millions of people who live and work along the coasts. A new group is aiming not only to further our understanding of glaciers but also to look into options to save them if things move toward a worst-case scenario, as my colleague James Temple outlined in his latest story. One idea: refreezing glaciers in place. The whole thing can sound like science fiction. But once you consider how huge the stakes are, I think it gets easier to understand why some scientists say we should at least be exploring these radical interventions. Read the full story. —Casey Crownhart This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. MIT Technology Review Narrated: How tracking animal movement may save the planet Researchers have long dreamed of creating an Internet of Animals. And they’re getting closer to monitoring 100,000 creatures—and revealing hidden facets of our shared world. This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we’re publishing 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 Donald Trump has announced 25% tariffs on imported cars and partsThe measures are likely to make new cars significantly more expensive for Americans. (NYT $)+ Moving car manufacturing operations to the US won’t be easy. (WP $)+ It’s not just big businesses that will suffer, either. (The Atlantic $)+ How Trump’s tariffs could drive up the cost of batteries, EVs, and more. (MIT Technology Review) 2 China is developing an AI system to increase its online censorship A leaked dataset demonstrates how LLMs could rapidly filter undesirable material. (TechCrunch) 3 Trump may reduce tariffs on China to encourage a TikTok dealThe Chinese-owned company has until April 5 to find a new US owner. (Insider $)+ The national security concerns surrounding it haven’t gone away, though. (NYT $) 4 OpenAI’s new image generator can ape Studio Ghibli's distinctive styleWhich raises the question of whether the model was trained on Ghibli’s images. (TechCrunch)+ The tool’s popularity means its rollout to non-paying users has been delayed. (The Verge)+ The AI lab waging a guerrilla war over exploitative AI. (MIT Technology Review) 5 DOGE planned to dismantle USAID from the beginningNew court filings reveal the department’s ambitions to infiltrate the system. (Wired $)+ Can AI help DOGE slash government budgets? It’s complex. (MIT Technology Review) 6 Wildfires are getting worse in the southwest of the USWhile federal fire spending is concentrated mainly in the west, the risk is rising in South Carolina and Texas too. (WP $)+ North and South Carolina were recovering from Hurricane Helene when the fires struck. (The Guardian)+ How AI can help spot wildfires. (MIT Technology Review) 7 A quantum computer has generated—and verified—truly random numbersWhich is good news for cryptographers. (Bloomberg $)+ Cybersecurity analysts are increasingly worried about the so-called Q-Day. (Wired $)+ Amazon’s first quantum computing chip makes its debut. (MIT Technology Review) 8 What’s next for weight-loss drugs 💉Competition is heating up, but will patients be the ones to benefit? (New Scientist $)+ Drugs like Ozempic now make up 5% of prescriptions in the US. (MIT Technology Review) 9 At least we’ve still got memesPoking fun at the Trump administration’s decisions is a form of online resistance. (New Yorker $) 10 Can you truly be friends with a chatbot?People are starting to find out. (Vox)+ The AI relationship revolution is already here. (MIT Technology Review) Quote of the day “I can’t imagine any professional I know committing this egregious a lapse in judgement.” —A government technology leader tells Fast Company why top Trump officials’ decision to use unclassified messaging app Signal to discuss war plans is so surprising. The big story Why one developer won’t quit fighting to connect the US’s grids September 2024 Michael Skelly hasn’t learned to take no for an answer. For much of the last 15 years, the energy entrepreneur has worked to develop long-haul transmission lines to carry wind power across the Great Plains, Midwest, and Southwest. But so far, he has little to show for the effort. Skelly has long argued that building such lines and linking together the nation’s grids would accelerate the shift from coal- and natural-gas-fueled power plants to the renewables needed to cut the pollution driving climate change. But his previous business shut down in 2019, after halting two of its projects and selling off interests in three more. Skelly contends he was early, not wrong, and that the market and policymakers are increasingly coming around to his perspective. After all, the US Department of Energy just blessed his latest company’s proposed line with hundreds of millions in grants. Read the full story. —James Temple 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 or skeet 'em at me.) + Severance’s Adam Scott sure has interesting taste in music. + While we’re not 100% sure if Millie is definitely the world’s oldest cat, one thing we know for sure is that she lives a life of luxury.+ Hiking trails are covered in beautiful wildflowers right now; just make sure you tread carefully.+ This is a really charming look at how girls live in America right now.

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.

Inside a romance scam compound—and how people get tricked into being there

Gavesh’s journey had started, seemingly innocently, with a job ad on Facebook promising work he desperately needed.

Instead, he found himself trafficked into a business commonly known as “pig butchering”—a form of fraud in which scammers form romantic or other close relationships with targets online and extract money from them. The Chinese crime syndicates behind the scams have netted billions of dollars, and they have used violence and coercion to force their workers, many of them people trafficked like Gavesh, to carry out the frauds from large compounds, several of which operate openly in the quasi-lawless borderlands of Myanmar.

We spoke to Gavesh and five other workers from inside the scam industry, as well as anti-trafficking experts and technology specialists. Their testimony reveals how global companies, including American social media and dating apps and international cryptocurrency and messaging platforms, have given the fraud business the means to become industrialized. 

By the same token, it is Big Tech that may hold the key to breaking up the scam syndicates—if only these companies can be persuaded or compelled to act. Read the full story.

—Peter Guest & Emily Fishbein

How to save a glacier

There’s a lot we don’t understand about how glaciers move and how soon some of the most significant ones could collapse into the sea. That could be a problem, since melting glaciers could lead to multiple feet of sea-level rise this century, potentially displacing millions of people who live and work along the coasts.

A new group is aiming not only to further our understanding of glaciers but also to look into options to save them if things move toward a worst-case scenario, as my colleague James Temple outlined in his latest story. One idea: refreezing glaciers in place.

The whole thing can sound like science fiction. But once you consider how huge the stakes are, I think it gets easier to understand why some scientists say we should at least be exploring these radical interventions. Read the full story.

—Casey Crownhart

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.

MIT Technology Review Narrated: How tracking animal movement may save the planet

Researchers have long dreamed of creating an Internet of Animals. And they’re getting closer to monitoring 100,000 creatures—and revealing hidden facets of our shared world.

This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which 
we’re publishing 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 Donald Trump has announced 25% tariffs on imported cars and parts
The measures are likely to make new cars significantly more expensive for Americans. (NYT $)
+ Moving car manufacturing operations to the US won’t be easy. (WP $)
+ It’s not just big businesses that will suffer, either. (The Atlantic $)
+ How Trump’s tariffs could drive up the cost of batteries, EVs, and more. (MIT Technology Review)

2 China is developing an AI system to increase its online censorship 
A leaked dataset demonstrates how LLMs could rapidly filter undesirable material. (TechCrunch)

3 Trump may reduce tariffs on China to encourage a TikTok deal
The Chinese-owned company has until April 5 to find a new US owner. (Insider $)
+ The national security concerns surrounding it haven’t gone away, though. (NYT $)

4 OpenAI’s new image generator can ape Studio Ghibli’s distinctive style
Which raises the question of whether the model was trained on Ghibli’s images. (TechCrunch)
+ The tool’s popularity means its rollout to non-paying users has been delayed. (The Verge)
+ The AI lab waging a guerrilla war over exploitative AI. (MIT Technology Review)

5 DOGE planned to dismantle USAID from the beginning
New court filings reveal the department’s ambitions to infiltrate the system. (Wired $)
+ Can AI help DOGE slash government budgets? It’s complex. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Wildfires are getting worse in the southwest of the US
While federal fire spending is concentrated mainly in the west, the risk is rising in South Carolina and Texas too. (WP $)
+ North and South Carolina were recovering from Hurricane Helene when the fires struck. (The Guardian)
+ How AI can help spot wildfires. (MIT Technology Review)

7 A quantum computer has generated—and verified—truly random numbers
Which is good news for cryptographers. (Bloomberg $)
+ Cybersecurity analysts are increasingly worried about the so-called Q-Day. (Wired $)
+ Amazon’s first quantum computing chip makes its debut. (MIT Technology Review)

8 What’s next for weight-loss drugs 💉
Competition is heating up, but will patients be the ones to benefit? (New Scientist $)
+ Drugs like Ozempic now make up 5% of prescriptions in the US. (MIT Technology Review)

9 At least we’ve still got memes
Poking fun at the Trump administration’s decisions is a form of online resistance. (New Yorker $)

10 Can you truly be friends with a chatbot?
People are starting to find out. (Vox)
+ The AI relationship revolution is already here. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“I can’t imagine any professional I know committing this egregious a lapse in judgement.”

—A government technology leader tells Fast Company why top Trump officials’ decision to use unclassified messaging app Signal to discuss war plans is so surprising.

The big story

Why one developer won’t quit fighting to connect the US’s grids

September 2024

Michael Skelly hasn’t learned to take no for an answer. For much of the last 15 years, the energy entrepreneur has worked to develop long-haul transmission lines to carry wind power across the Great Plains, Midwest, and Southwest. But so far, he has little to show for the effort.

Skelly has long argued that building such lines and linking together the nation’s grids would accelerate the shift from coal- and natural-gas-fueled power plants to the renewables needed to cut the pollution driving climate change. But his previous business shut down in 2019, after halting two of its projects and selling off interests in three more.

Skelly contends he was early, not wrong, and that the market and policymakers are increasingly coming around to his perspective. After all, the US Department of Energy just blessed his latest company’s proposed line with hundreds of millions in grants. Read the full story.

—James Temple

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 or skeet ’em at me.)

+ Severance’s Adam Scott sure has interesting taste in music. 
+ While we’re not 100% sure if Millie is definitely the world’s oldest cat, one thing we know for sure is that she lives a life of luxury.
+ Hiking trails are covered in beautiful wildflowers right now; just make sure you tread carefully.
+ This is a really charming look at how girls live in America right now.

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Tether Finalizes Buying 70% of Adecoagro Stake, Securing Tokenization Ambition

Tether, the issuer behind the nearly $150 billion USDT stablecoin, has finalized the purchase of a 70% stake in the Latin American agricultural firm Adecoagro (AGRO), which has a market cap of nearly a billion dollars.
Tether initially invested $100 million in Adecoagro in September 2024 for a 9.8% stake, then offered to increase it to 51% in February, and finally raised it to control 70% in March.

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Read more: Tether’s $100M Investment in LatAm Agriculture Firm May Be a Tokenization Play
This majority stake gives Tether control over one of the region’s most prominent food and bioenergy producers. Adecoagro owns sugar mills, rice farms, dairy operations, and renewable energy assets across Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay.
Tether said it aims to help scale Adecoagro’s output while aligning the company with its mission of fostering “economic freedom” through decentralized finance and investment in underserved markets.

The move might be part of Tether’s ambition to tokenize real-world assets, as it launched its asset tokenization service Hadron last year. The platform was designed to simplify the process of converting a wide range of real-world assets, including bonds, commodities, stocks, other stablecoins, and loyalty points into digital tokens on blockchain rails.
Read more: Tether Unveils New Platform to Simplify Asset Tokenization for Businesses, Nation-States
“By aligning with in Adecoagro’s proven expertise in agriculture and renewable energy, we are taking another concrete step toward bridging traditional industries with the future of decentralized finance and economic empowerment,” said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether.
Following the deal, Adecoagro’s board was also reshuffled. Five members stepped down and were replaced by executives tied to Tether and its strategic goals. Juan Sartori, a Uruguayan businessman with political and agricultural interests, took over as chairman.
In the past year, Tether has launched ventures in bitcoin mining, AI, and encrypted communications. AGRO’s shares were up 2.6% on Wednesday.
Read more: Tether’s $100M Investment in LatAm Agriculture Firm May Be a Tokenization Play
Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.

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Alberta Leader Smith Lashes Out at Liberals, Wants New Deal

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith challenged Mark Carney to strike a better deal for her oil-rich province, saying she would not allow the “status quo” to prevail in its relationship with the federal government.

While congratulating the Liberal prime minister on his election victory, Smith said a large number of Albertans are deeply frustrated that a government that “overtly attacked” her province’s economy has been returned to power. 

“I invite the prime minister to immediately commence working with our government to reset the relationship between Ottawa and Alberta with meaningful action rather than hollow rhetoric,” she said in a statement.

“Albertans are proud Canadians that want this nation to be strong, prosperous and united, but we will no longer tolerate having our industries threatened and our resources landlocked by Ottawa.”

Alberta has been in conflict with Canada’s Liberal government since Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau, was elected in 2015 and began rolling out environmental policies, including an emissions cap, new pipeline regulations and a ban on tankers off the northern British Columbia coast. Smith says those measures encroach on the province’s jurisdiction and hamper oil and gas development. 

The growing hostility has prompted some Albertans to call for greater autonomy from the federal government, and even fueled a small but simmering secession movement. 

The Alberta government will hold a caucus meeting on Friday to discuss the province’s future within a united Canada, Smith said. 

‘Pivotal Moment’

Carney said in his victory speech early Tuesday that he intends to govern for all Canadians. He has pledged to turn the country into a “superpower” in both clean and conventional energy, and said it needs to produce more oil while reducing the associated emissions.

“My optimistic view is a Carney win is status quo for a sector that’s dealt with significant challenges over the past 10 years,” Eric Nuttall, senior portfolio manager at Ninepoint Partners in Toronto, said on BNN Bloomberg Television. 

He said Carney’s apparent reluctance to repeal the environmental assessment law known as Bill C-69 means “no oil pipelines.” 

“So for our Canadian energy sector, at least in the oil sector, they’ll be required to remain as disciplined in returning that free cash flow back to shareholders in the form of share buybacks because there will be nothing left to do with it.”

Lisa Baiton, chief executive officer of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said she was encouraged by the tone set by the two leading parties throughout the election campaign on the importance of oil and gas to the country’s economy.

“Canada stands at a pivotal moment in its history — caught in a trade war with our closest trading partner and facing direct challenges to our sovereignty from the president of the United States,” she said in a statement. 

“Developing our world-class oil and natural gas resources to their full potential by growing our exports to international markets will strengthen our energy security and economic sovereignty.”

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