MIT Technology Review

MIT Technology Review Explains: Let our writers untangle the complex, messy world of technology to help you understand what's coming next. You can read more from the series here. This week, China banned exports of several critical minerals to the US, marking the latest move in an escalating series of tit-for-tat trade restrictions between the...

The US Department of Defense has invested $2.4 million over two years in deepfake detection technology from a startup called Hive AI. It's the first contract of its kind for the DOD's Defense Innovation Unit, which accelerates the adoption of new technologies for the US defense sector. Hive AI's models are capable of detecting AI-generated...

This is today's edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. OpenAI's new defense contract completes its military pivot At the start of 2024, OpenAI's rules for how armed forces might use its AI models were unambiguous: it prohibited anyone from using them for...

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review's weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. Last week, we celebrated Thanksgiving here in the US, and I had hearty helpings of ham and turkey alongside my mashed potatoes and green bean casserole. Meat is often the star on...

At the start of 2024, OpenAI's rules for how armed forces might use its technology were unambiguous. The company prohibited anyone from using its models for weapons development" or military and warfare." That changed on January 10, when The Intercept reported that OpenAI had softened those restrictions, forbidding anyone from using the technology to harm...

A company best known for sucking up industrial waste gases is turning its attention to food. LanzaTech, a rising star in the fuel and chemical industries, is joining a growing group of businesses producing microbe-based food as an alternative to plant and animal products. Using microbes to make food is hardly new-beer, yogurt, cheese, and...

Google DeepMind has unveiled an AI model that's better at predicting the weather than the current best systems. The new model, dubbed GenCast, is published in Nature today. This is the second AI weather model that Google has launched in just the past few months. In July, it published details of NeuralGCM, a model that...

This is today's edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. How the Ukraine-Russia war is reshaping the tech sector in Eastern Europe It might have been hard a few years ago to imagine soldiers heading to battle on oversized toys made by a...

At first glance, the Mosphera scooter may look normal-just comically oversized. It's like the monster truck of scooters, with a footplate seven inches off the ground that's wide enough to stand on with your feet slightly apart-which you have to do to keep your balance, because when you flip the accelerator with a thumb, it...

A startup called Exa is pitching a new spin on generative search. It uses the tech behind large language models to return lists of results that it claims are more on point than those from its rivals, including Google and OpenAI. The aim is to turn the internet's chaotic tangle of web pages into a...

This is today's edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. Nominate someone to our 2025 list of Innovators Under 35 Every year, MIT Technology Review recognizes 35 young innovators who are doing pioneering work across a range of technical fields including biotechnology, materials...

Every year, MIT Technology Review recognizes 35 young innovators who are doing pioneering work across a range of technical fields including biotechnology, materials science, artificial intelligence, computing, and more. We're now taking nominations for our 2025 list and you can submit one here. The process takes just a few minutes. Nominations will close at 11:59...

Generative AI has taken off. Since the introduction of ChatGPT in November 2022, businesses have flocked to large language models (LLMs) and generative AI models looking for solutions to their mostcomplex and labor-intensive problems. The promise that customer service could be turned over to highly trained chat platforms that could recognize a customer's problem and...

This is today's edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. What the departing White House chief tech advisor has to say on AI President Biden's administration will end within two months, and likely to depart with him is Arati Prabhakar, the top mind...

A Japanese publishing startup is using Anthropic's flagship large language model Claude to help translate manga into English, allowing the company to churn out a new title for a Western audience in just a few days rather than the two to three months it would take a team of humans. Orange was founded by Shoko...

This is today's edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. The risk of a bird flu pandemic is rising How worried should we be about bird flu? The past few months have seen some potentially worrisome developments in the US, including the continued...

This article first appeared in The Checkup,MIT Technology Review'sweekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first,sign up here. How worried should we be about bird flu? It's a question that I've been asked by friends and colleagues several times over the last couple of weeks. Their...

If NASA establishes a permanent presence on the moon, its astronauts' homes could be made of a new 3D-printable, waterless concrete. Someday, so might yours. By accelerating the curing process for more rapid construction, this sulfur-based compound could become just as applicable on our home terrain as it is on lunar soil. Artemis III-set to...

This is today's edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. What's next for NASA's giant moon rocket? NASA's huge lunar rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), might be in trouble. As rival launchers like SpaceX's Starship gather pace, some are questioning the need...

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review's weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. This is a busy time of year for all of us, and that's certainly true in the advanced nuclear industry. MIT Technology Review released our list of 15 Climate Tech Companies to...

MIT Technology Review's What's Next series looks across industries, trends, and technologies to give you a first look at the future. You can read the rest of themhere. NASA's huge lunar rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), might be in trouble. As rival launchers like SpaceX's Starship gather pace, some are questioning the need for...

This is today's edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. These AI Minecraft characters did weirdly human stuff all on their own Left to their own devices, an army of AI characters didn't just survive - they thrived. They developed in-game jobs, shared...

Left to their own devices, an army of AI characters didn't just survive - they thrived. They developed in-game jobs, shared memes, voted on tax reforms and even spread a religion. The experiment played out on the open-world gaming platform Minecraft, where up to 1000 software agents at a time used large language models (LLMs)...

In this exclusive webcast, we delve into the transformative potential of portable microservices for the deployment of generative AI models. We explore how startups and large organizations are leveraging this technology to streamline generative AI deployment, enhance customer service, and drive innovation across domains, including chatbots, document analysis, and video generation. Our discussion focuses on...

This is today's edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. The way we measure progress in AI is terrible Every time a new AI model is released, it's typically touted as acing its performance against a series of benchmarks. OpenAI's GPT-4o, for example,...

This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get it in your inbox first,sign up here. Generative AI models have become remarkably good at conversing with us, and creating images, videos, and music for us, but they're not all that good at doing things for us. AI agents promise to change...

Every time a new AI model is released, it's typically touted as acing its performance against a series of benchmarks. OpenAI's GPT-4o, for example, was launched in May with a compilation of results that showed its performance topping every other AI company's latest model in several tests. The problem is that these benchmarks are poorly...

This is today's edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. How Trump's tariffs could drive up the cost of batteries, EVs, and more President-elect Donald Trump's America First" plan to enact huge tariffs on imported goods threatens to jack up the cost and...

This story originally appeared in The Debrief with Mat Honan, your weekly take on the tech news that really matters. Sign up here to get the next one in your inbox. Last week, the US Department of Justicereleased its recommendations for proposed remediesin its antitrust case against Google. While no one thought the DOJ would...

President-elect Donald Trump's America First" plan to enact huge tariffs on imported goods threatens to jack up the cost and slow down the development of US cleantech projects. On the campaign trail, Trump pledged to enact 10% to 20% across-the-board tariffs on all overseas products, 60% to 100% tariffs on Chinese goods, and 25% to...

This is today's edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. How OpenAI stress-tests its large language models OpenAI has lifted the lid (just a crack) on its safety-testing processes. It has put out two papers describing how it stress-tests its powerful large language...

This article first appeared in The Checkup,MIT Technology Review'sweekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first,sign up here. Earlier this year, a boy in Sweden celebrated his 10th birthday. Reproductive scientists and doctors marked the occasion too. This little boy's birth had been special. He was...

OpenAI is once again lifting the lid (just a crack) on its safety-testing processes. Last month the company shared the results of an investigation that looked at how often ChatGPT produced a harmful gender or racial stereotype based on a user's name. Now it has put out two papers describing how it stress-tests its powerful...

This is today's edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. AI can now create a replica of your personality Imagine sitting down with an AI model for a spoken two-hour interview. A friendly voice guides you through a conversation that ranges from your...

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review's weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. Well, what about China?" This is a comment I get all the time on the topic of climate change, both in conversations and on whatever social media site is currently en vogue....

MIT Technology Review's How To series helps you get things done. Since the start of the generative AI boom, artists have been worried about losing their livelihoods to AI tools. There have been plenty of examples of companies' replacing human labor with computer programs. Most recently, Coca-Cola sparked controversy by creating a new Christmas ad...

Imagine sitting down with an AI model for a spoken two-hour interview. A friendly voice guides you through a conversation that ranges from your childhood, your formative memories, and your career to your thoughts on immigration policy. Not long after, a virtual replica of you is able to embody your values and preferences with stunning...

This is today's edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. Inside Clear's ambitions to manage your identity beyond the airport Clear Secure is the most visible biometric identity company in the United States. Best known for its line-jumping service in airports, it's also...

Once again, global greenhouse-gas emissions are projected to hit a new high in 2024. In this time of shifting political landscapes and ongoing international negotiations, many are quick to blame one country or another for an outsize role in causing climate change. But assigning responsibility is complicated. These three visualizations help explain why and provide...

If you've ever been through a large US airport, you're probably at least vaguely aware of Clear. Maybe your interest (or irritation) has been piqued by the pods before the security checkpoints, the attendants in navy blue vests who usher clients to the front of the security line (perhaps just ahead of you), and the...

Recorded on November 19, 2024 What's Next for Mixed Reality: Glasses, Goggles, and More. Speakers: Mat Honan, Editor in Chief, and James O'Donnell, AI hardware reporter. We are barreling toward the next big consumer device category: smart glasses. After years of trying, augmented-reality specs are at last a thing. Facebook recently showed off its Orion...

This is today's edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. How the largest gathering of US police chiefs is talking about AI -James O'Donnell The International Association of Chiefs of Police bills itself as the largest gathering of its type in the United...

This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get it in your inbox first,sign up here. It can be tricky for reporters to get past certain doors, and the door to the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference is one that's almost perpetually shut to the media. Thus, I was...

You may have read thatit was a big week for Bluesky. If you're not familiar, Bluesky is, essentially, a Twitter clone that publishes short-form status updates. It gained more than 2 million users this week. On Wednesday,The Vergereportedit had crossed 15 million users. By Thursday, it was at 16 million. By Friday?17 million and counting....

This article first appeared in The Checkup,MIT Technology Review'sweekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first,sign up here. Every journalist has favorite topics. Regular Checkup readers might already know some of mine, which include the quest to delay or reverse human aging, and new technologies for...

This is today's edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. How this grassroots effort could make AI voices more diverse We are on the cusp of a voice AI boom, as tech companies roll out the next generation of artificial-intelligence-powered assistants. But the...

We are on the cusp of a voice AI boom, with tech companies such as Apple and OpenAI rolling out the next generation of artificial-intelligence-powered assistants. But the default voices for these assistants are often white American-British, if you're lucky-and most definitely speak English. They represent only a tiny proportion of the many dialects and...