From Quantum Chips to Humanoid Robots: The Technology Frontier

Officials revealed this week that the new Air Force One — Boeing's long-delayed 747-8, contracted in 2018 — lacks key defensive systems that were standard on the older VC-25A jets, including electronic warfare countermeasures. The delays have been so extensive that the aircraft are expected to enter service in a fundamentally different threat environment than the one they were designed for.

AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon announced a replacement for SMS-based two-factor authentication, moving toward device-based cryptographic verification that closes known vulnerabilities to SIM-swapping attacks and interception. NHTSA signaled it will consider revising requirements that vehicles have steering wheels and pedals, potentially clearing a regulatory path for purpose-built autonomous vehicles from companies including Waymo.

Mitsubishi Motors announced it will mass-produce humanoid robots at its Kyoto plant — a significant strategic pivot for an automaker that would imply the technology has matured faster than most analysts expected if the company has solved enough of the unstructured-environment challenge to commit to production at scale. ETH Zurich unveiled a quantum chip that stores data as vibrations rather than electrical states, a phonon-based architecture that could in principle operate at higher temperatures with less isolation overhead than superconducting or trapped-ion systems, though researchers described it as early-stage work.

A gene therapy platform using the brain's own cerebrospinal fluid circulation to bypass the blood-brain barrier was among the week's more significant medical developments, potentially enabling treatments for conditions including Huntington's disease and ALS that currently have very limited options. DJI drones completed three separate missions on Mount Everest, hauling over 10 tonnes of cargo, mapping the Khumbu Icefall, and setting an altitude record for electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft.