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. Week one of the Musk v. Altman trial: what it was like in the room Two of the most powerful figures in AI—Sam Altman and Elon Musk—are in the middle of…

Every few centuries, changes in how information moves reshape how societies govern themselves. The printing press spread vernacular literacy, helping give rise to the Reformation and, eventually, representative government. The telegraph made it possible to administer vast nations like the US, accelerating the growth of the modern bureaucratic state. Broadcast media created shared national audiences,…