MIT Technology Review

Ask people building generative AI what generative AI is good for right now-what they're really fired up about-and many will tell you: coding. That's something that's been very exciting for developers," Jared Kaplan, chief scientist at Anthropic, told MIT Technology Review this month: It's really understanding what's wrong with code, debugging it." Copilot, a tool...

When you think of AI's contributions to science, you probably think of AlphaFold, the Google DeepMind protein-folding program that earned its creator a Nobel Prize last year. Now OpenAI says it's getting into the science game too-with a model for engineering proteins. The company says it has developed a language model that dreams up proteins...

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. We need to protect the protocol that runs Bluesky -Eli Pariser & Deepti Doshi Last week, when Mark Zuckerberg announced Meta would be ending third-party fact-checking, it was a shocking pivot, but not...

Last week, when Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta would be ending third-party fact-checking, it was a shocking pivot, but not exactly surprising. It's just the latest example of a billionaire flip-flop affecting our social lives on the internet. After January 6, 2021, Zuckerberg bragged to Congress about Facebook's industry-leading fact-checking program" and banned Donald Trump...

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. Over the past few months, I've been working on a piece about IVF embryos. The goal of in vitro fertilization is to create babies via a bit of...

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 to expect from Neuralink in 2025 In November, a young man named Noland Arbaugh announced he'd be livestreaming from his home for three days straight. His broadcast was in some ways typical...

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review's weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. Lately, the vibes have been good for nuclear power. Public support is building, and public and private funding have made the technology more economical in key markets. There's also a swell of...

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. In November, a young man named Noland Arbaugh announced he'd be livestreaming from his home for three days straight. His broadcast was in some ways typical fare:...

Meta has released a new AI model that can translate speech from 101 different languages. It represents a step toward real-time, simultaneous interpretation, where words are translated as soon as they come out of someone's mouth. Typically, translation models for speech use a multistep approach. First they translate speech into text. Then they translate that...

In the rapidly evolving landscape of digital innovation, staying adaptable isn't just a strategy-it's a survival skill. Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face," says Luis Nino, digital manager for technology ventures and innovation at Chevron, quoting Mike Tyson. Drawing from a career that spans IT, HR, and infrastructure operations across...

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. China wants to restore the sea with high-tech marine ranches A short ferry ride from the port city of Yantai, on the northeast coast of China, sits Genghai No. 1, a 12,000-metric-ton ring...

Imagine the bustling floors of tomorrow's manufacturing plant: Robots, well-versed in multiple disciplines through adaptive AI education, work seamlessly and safely alongside human counterparts. These robots can transition effortlessly between tasks-from assembling intricate electronic components to handling complex machinery assembly. Each robot's unique education enables it to predict maintenance needs, optimize energy consumption, and innovate...

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 nuclear power While nuclear reactors have been generating power around the world for over 70 years, the current moment is one of potentially radical transformation for the technology. As electricity...

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. While nuclear reactors have been generating power around the world for over 70 years, the current moment is one of potentially radical transformation for the technology. As...

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. In December, our small but mighty AI reporting team was asked by our editors to make a prediction: What's coming next for AI? In 2024, AI contributed both to Nobel Prize-winning...

This article first appeared in The Debrief,MIT Technology Review'sweekly newsletter from our editor in chief Mat Honan. To receive it in your inbox every Friday, sign up here. On Tuesday last week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg released a blog post and video titled More Speech and Fewer Mistakes." Zuckerberg-whose previous self-acknowledged mistakes includethe Cambridge Analytica...

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 the strange limbo facing millions of IVF embryos Millions of embryos created through IVF sit frozen in time, stored in cryopreservation tanks around the world. The number is only growing thanks to...

Agents are the hottest thing in tech right now. Top firms from Google DeepMind to OpenAI to Anthropic are racing to augment large language models with the ability to carry out tasks by themselves. Known as agentic AI in industry jargon, such systems have fast become the new target of Silicon Valley buzz. Everyone from...

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 US is preparing for a potential bird flu pandemic This week marks a strange anniversary-it's five years since most of us first heard about a virus causing a mysterious pneumonia." 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. The world's first industrial-scale plant for green steel promises a cleaner future As of 2023, nearly 2 billion metric tons of steel were being produced annually, enough to cover Manhattan in a layer...

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review's weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. I love the fresh start that comes with a new year. And one thing adding a boost to my January is our newest list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies. In case you haven't...

The first Democrat in New York history with a computer science background wants to revive some of the ideas behind the failed California AI safety bill, SB 1047, with a new version in his state that would regulate the most advanced AI models. It's called the RAISE Act, an acronym for Responsible AI Safety 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's next for AI in 2025 For the last couple of years we've had a go at predicting what's coming next in AI. A fool's game given how fast this industry moves. But...

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. For the last couple of years we've had a go at predicting what's coming next in AI. A fool's game given how fast this industry moves. But...

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 means the end of internet search as we've known it We all know what it means, colloquially, to google something. You pop a few words in a search box and in return...

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 them here. Every day, we are tracked hundreds or even thousands of times across the digital world. Cookies and web trackers capture every website link that we click,...

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. The start of a new year, and maybe especially this one, feels like a good time for a gut check: How optimistic are you feeling about the future of technology? Our...

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. Introducing: MIT Technology Review's 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2025 Each year, we spend months researching and discussing which technologies will make the cut for our 10 Breakthrough Technologies list. We try to highlight...

We all know what it means, colloquially, to google something. You pop a few relevant words in a search box and in return get a list of blue links to the most relevant results. Maybe some quick explanations up top. Maybe some maps or sports scores or a video. But fundamentally, it's just fetching information...

Welcome to our annual breakthroughs issue. If you're an MIT Technology Review superfan, you may already know that putting together our 10 Breakthrough Technologies (TR10) list is one of my favorite things we do as a publication. We spend months researching and discussing which technologies will make the list. We try to highlight a mix...

Recorded on January 3, 2025 Unveiling the 10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2025 Speakers: Amy Nordrum, executive editor, and Charlotte Jee, news editor. Each year, MIT Technology Review publishes an annual list of the top ten breakthrough technologies that will have the greatest impact on how we live and work in the future. This year, the...

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 poop could help feed the planet A new industrial facility in suburban Seattle is giving off a whiff of futuristic technology. It can safely treat fecal waste from people and livestock while...

WHO Gilead Sciences, GSK, ViiV Healthcare WHEN 1 to 3 years In June 2024, results from a trial of a new medicine to prevent HIV were announced-and they were jaw-dropping. Lenacapavir, a treatment injected once every six months, protected over 5,000 girls and women in Uganda and South Africa from getting HIV. And it was...

WHO Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Perplexity WHEN Now Google's introduction of AI Overviews, powered by its Gemini language model, will alter how billions of people search the internet. And generative search may be the first step toward an AI agent that handles any question you have or task you need done. Rather than returning...

WHO Blue Ocean Barns, DSM-Firmenich, Rumin8, Symbrosia WHEN Now Companies are finally making real progress on one of the trickiest problems for climate change: cow burps. The world's herds of cattle belch out methane as a by-product of digestion, as do sheep and goats. That powerful greenhouse gas makes up the single biggest source of...

WHO Gevo, LanzaJet, Montana Renewables, Neste, World Energy WHEN Now All the world's planes consumed roughly 100 billion gallons of jet fuel as they crisscrossed the planet in 2024. Only about 0.5% of it was something other than fossil fuel. That could soon change. Alternative jet fuels could slash aviation emissions-which have caused about 4%...

WHO Agility, Amazon, Covariant, Robust, Toyota Research Institute WHEN Now Generative AI is causing a paradigm shift in how robots are trained. It's now clear how we might finally build the sort of truly capable robots that have for decades remained the stuff of science fiction. Robotics researchers are no strangers to artificial intelligence-it has...

WHO California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Neurona Therapeutics, Vertex Pharmaceuticals WHEN 5 years A quarter-century ago, researchers isolated powerful stem cells from embryos created through in vitro fertilization. These cells, theoretically able to morph into any tissue in the human body, promised a medical revolution. Think: replacement parts for whatever ails you. But stem-cell science...

WHO Baidu, Pony AI, Waymo, Wayve, Zoox WHEN Now If you live in certain cities in America or China, you've probably spotted driverless cars dropping off passengers. Perhaps you've even ridden in one yourself. That's a radical change from even three years ago, when these services were still learning the rules of the road. And...

A new industrial facility in suburban Seattle is giving off a whiff of futuristic technology. It can safely treat fecal waste from people and livestock while recycling nutrients that are crucial for agriculture but in increasingly short supply across the nation's farmlands. Within the 2.3-acre plant, which smells lightly of ammonia, giant rotating spindles turn...

Each year, about half a million Americans are diagnosed with Clostridioides difficile, a common bacterial infection of the large intestine. Only some patients respond to antibiotics. Infection recurs in about 20% of patients and proves fatal in about 30,000 cases annually. But there is a highly effective, albeit unconventional, treatment: fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), which...

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 biggest AI flops of 2024 The past 12 months have been undeniably busy for those working in AI. There have been more successful product launches than we can count, and even Nobel...

Inhabitants of the Marshall Islands-a chain of coral atolls in the center of the Pacific Ocean-rely on sea transportation for almost everything: moving people from one island to another, importing daily necessities from faraway nations, and exporting their local produce. For millennia they sailed largely in canoes, but much of their seafaring movement today involves...

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 them here. It looks as though 2025 will be a solid year for electric vehicles-at least outside the United States, where sales will depend on the incoming administration's...

High atop Chile's 2,700-meter Cerro Pachon, the air is clear and dry, leaving few clouds to block the beautiful view of the stars. It's here that the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will soon use a car-size 3,200-megapixel digital camera-the largest ever built-to produce a new map of the entire night sky every three days. Generating...

The past 12 months have been undeniably busy for those working in AI. There have been more successful product launches than we can count, and even Nobel Prizes. But it hasn't always been smooth sailing. AI is an unpredictable technology, and the increasing availability of generative models has led people to test their limits in...

Separating AI reality from hyped-up fiction isn't always easy. That's why we've created the AI Hype Index-a simple, at-a-glance summary of everything you need to know about the state of the industry. More than 70 countries went to the polls in 2024. The good news is that this year of global elections turned out to...

A short ferry ride from the port city of Yantai, on the northeast coast of China, sits Genghai No.1, a 12,000-metric-ton ring of oil-rig-style steel platforms, advertised as a hotel and entertainment complex. On arrival, visitors step onto docks and climb up to reach a strange offshore facility-half cruise ship, half high-tech laboratory, all laid...

As of 2023, nearly 2 billion metric tons of it were being produced annually, enough to cover Manhattan in a layer more than 13 feet thick. Making this metal produces a huge amount of carbon dioxide. Overall, steelmaking accounts for around 8% of the world's carbon emissions-one of the largest industrial emitters and far more...

When Dave Hodson walked through wheat fields in Ethiopia in 2010, it seemed as if everything had been painted yellow. A rust fungus was in the process of infecting about one-third of the country's wheat, and winds had carried its spores far and wide, coating everything in their path. The fields were completely yellow. You'd...