MIT Technology Review

Brain signals can be used to detect how much pain a person is experiencing, which could overhaul how we treat certain chronic pain conditions, a new study has suggested. The research, published in Nature Neuroscience today, is the first time a human’s chronic-pain-related brain signals have been recorded. It could aid the development of personalized…

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. The FDA just approved rub-on gene therapy that helps “butterfly” children The news: Last week, the US Food and Drug Administration approved sales of the first gene therapy that is directly applied to…

This article is from The Technocrat, MIT Technology Review’s weekly tech policy newsletter about power, politics, and Silicon Valley. To receive it in your inbox every Friday, sign up here. I recently published a short story about new policies recently announced by Google and Twitter that allow the companies to remove inactive accounts. Google said the decision…

This article is from The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, sign up here. Regular readers will know that the microbiome is one of my favorite topics to cover. The billions of bacteria crawling all over our bodies play a vital role in our health, influencing…

Last week a leaked memo reported to have been written by Luke Sernau, a senior engineer at Google, said out loud what many in Silicon Valley must have been whispering for weeks: an open-source free-for-all is threatening Big Tech’s grip on AI. New open-source large language models—alternatives to Google’s Bard or OpenAI’s ChatGPT that researchers…

Things got weird at yesterday’s Google I/O conference right from the jump, when the duck hit the stage. The day began with a musical performance described as a “generative AI experiment featuring Dan Deacon and Google’s MusicLM, Phenaki, and Bard AI tools.” It wasn’t clear exactly how much of it was machine-made and how much…

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. Google is throwing generative AI at everything The news: Google is stuffing powerful new AI tools into tons of its existing products and launching a slew of new ones, including a coding assistant,…

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. Buckle up, because this week, we’re talking about batteries. Over the past couple of months, I’ve been noticing a lot of announcements about a new type of battery, one that could majorly shake…

Google is stuffing powerful new AI tools into tons of its existing products and launching a slew of new ones, including a coding assistant, it announced at its annual I/O conference today. Billions of users will soon see Google’s latest AI language mode, PaLM 2, integrated into over 25 products like Maps, Docs, Gmail, Sheets,…

The joke about the Human Genome Project is how many times it’s been finished, but not actually. The first time was in 2000, when Bill Clinton announced the “first survey of the entire human genome” at a White House ceremony, calling it “the most important and most wondrous map ever produced by humankind.” But the…

A startup backed by Sam Altman says it’s on track to flip on the world’s first fusion power plant in five years, dramatically shortening the timeline to a carbon-free energy source that’s eluded scientists for three-quarters of a century. Helion Energy’s announcement that it’s on the verge of commercializing the process that powers the sun…

As the impacts of climate change like desertification, biodiversity loss, pollution, and severe weather persist, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is approaching the green transition and decarbonization with a great sense of urgency. Between its ratification of the 2015 Paris Agreement, its $160 billion investment in renewables over the next 30 years, and its green…

Scientists have come up with a new way to introduce odors into virtual reality via small, wireless interfaces. Creating smells in virtual reality is a vexing problem that has prevented consumer VR devices from offering a full sensory experience in most settings. “People can touch in VR,” says Xinge Yu, a professor at the department…

With greater awareness and urgency around the climate crisis and the impact of energy consumption, 140 countries have announced or are considering net zero targets, covering close to 90% of global emissions. These efforts will collectively support the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions. Additionally, the number of large cities with net zero targets has…

My pet Orzo was panting, excited to bring me the tennis ball I had thrown a few feet away. Orzo’s eyes were bright and it wagged its tail. “Good job, buddy!” I cooed. Orzo indicated it wanted a belly rub, so I obliged. Orzo is not a real pet. It is a virtual creature on…

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. This abundant material could unlock cheaper batteries for EVs Lithium is currently the ruler of the battery world, a key ingredient in the batteries powering phones and electric vehicles. But as concerns about…

Move over, lithium—there’s a new battery chemistry in town. Lithium is currently the ruler of the battery world, a key ingredient in the batteries that power phones, electric vehicles, and even store energy on the electrical grid. But as concerns about the battery supply chain swell, scientists are looking for ways to cut down on…

This article is from The Technocrat, MIT Technology Review’s weekly tech policy newsletter about power, politics, and Silicon Valley. To receive it in your inbox every Friday, sign up here. Do you know how many internet-connected devices there are inside your home? I certainly don’t. These days, it could be almost anything: a thermostat, a…

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. Doctors have performed brain surgery on a fetus in one of the first operations of its kind What’s happened: A seven-week-old baby girl is one of the first people to have undergone an…

This article is from The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, sign up here. She doesn’t know it yet, but a baby girl living somewhere near Boston has made history. The seven-week-old is one of the first people to have undergone an experimental brain operation while…

She doesn’t know it yet, but a baby girl living somewhere near Boston has made history. The seven-week-old is one of the first people to have undergone an experimental brain operation while still in the womb. It might have saved her life. Before she was born, this little girl developed a dangerous condition that led…

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. Geoffrey Hinton talks about the “existential threat” of AI Deep learning pioneer Geoffrey Hinton announced on Monday that he was stepping down from his role as an AI researcher at Google after a…

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. Sometimes, as a reporter following climate technology, I feel like I have a front-row seat for some of the hottest topics on the planet. That’s how I’ve felt watching the news about solar…

Deep learning pioneer Geoffrey Hinton announced on Monday that he was stepping down from his role as a Google AI researcher after a decade with the company. He says he wants to speak freely as he grows increasingly worried about the potential harms of artificial intelligence. Prior to the announcement, Will Douglas Heaven, MIT Technology…

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. How chemists could give new life to old wind turbine blades The news: Wind turbines are crucial for addressing climate change, but when they’ve reached the end of their lives, turbine blades could…

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. Geoffrey Hinton tells us why he’s now scared of the tech he helped build Geoffrey Hinton is a pioneer of deep learning who helped develop some of the most important techniques at the…

Wind turbines are crucial for addressing climate change, but when they’ve reached the end of their lives, turbine blades could add up to a lot of waste. Now new research, published in Nature, could represent a first step toward building renewable-energy infrastructure that doesn’t end up in a landfill. Wind turbine blades need to be…

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. This week’s big news is that Geoffrey Hinton, a VP and Engineering Fellow at Google, and a pioneer of deep learning who developed some of the most important techniques at the heart…

I met Geoffrey Hinton at his house on a pretty street in north London just four days before the bombshell announcement that he is quitting Google. Hinton is a pioneer of deep learning who helped develop some of the most important techniques at the heart of modern artificial intelligence, but after a decade at Google,…

A noninvasive brain-computer interface capable of converting a person’s thoughts into words could one day help people who have lost the ability to speak as a result of injuries like strokes or conditions including ALS. In a new study, published in Nature Neuroscience today, a model trained on functional magnetic resonance imaging scans of three…

This article is from The Technocrat, MIT Technology Review’s weekly tech policy newsletter about power, politics, and Silicon Valley. To receive it in your inbox every Friday, sign up here. I recently published a story about a new kind of job that’s becoming essential at the frontier of the internet: the role of metaverse content…

Geoffrey Hinton, a VP and engineering fellow at Google and a pioneer of deep learning who developed some of the most important techniques at the heart of modern AI, is leaving the company after 10 years, the New York Times reported today. According to the Times, Hinton says he has new fears about the technology…

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. How an undercover content moderator polices the metaverse When Ravi Yekkanti puts on his headset to go to work, he never knows what the day spent in virtual reality will bring. Who might…

AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Bing, and Bard are excellent at crafting sentences that sound like human writing. But they often present falsehoods as facts and have inconsistent logic, and that can be hard to spot. One way around this problem, a new study suggests, is to change the way the AI presents information. Getting users…

When Ravi Yekkanti puts on his headset to go to work, he never knows what the day spent in virtual reality will bring. Who might he meet? Will a child’s voice accost him with a racist remark? Will a cartoon try to grab his genitals? He adjusts the extraterrestrial-looking goggles haloing his head as he…

This article is from The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, sign up here. Feces are good for so much more than flushing. Yes, our waste contains the stuff that our bodies are generally trying to get rid of. But it can also provide insight into…

The relentless hype surrounding generative AI in the past few months has been accompanied by equally loud anguish over the supposed perils — just look at the open letter calling for a pause in AI experiments. This tumult risks blinding us to more immediate risks — think sustainability and bias — and clouds our ability…

Early last year, entrepreneur Luke Iseman says, he released a pair of sulfur dioxide–filled weather balloons from Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, in the hope that they’d burst miles above Earth. It was a trivial act in itself, involving far less of the gas than a commercial airliner releases. But the launch was imbued with meaning,…

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. America’s first IVF baby is pitching a way to pick the DNA of your kids Elizabeth Carr is head of commercial development at Genomic Prediction, a genetic testing startup that says it will…

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. We’re gathered here today to commemorate the demise of a towering figure in the energy world: nuclear power in Germany. Born: June 16, 1961. Died: April 15, 2023. Just a decade ago, Germany…

Health data is all around us. Your electronic health records (EHRs) include your medical issues, test results, vital signs, allergies, prescriptions, and surgeries. Your health insurer’s database collects the claims paid on your behalf. Your pharmacy may record your flu and covid-19 shots. Maybe a smartwatch counts your steps and measures your heart rate; perhaps…

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. Introducing: The Education issue —Mat Honan, editor in chief Welcome to the Education Issue, our latest print magazine. It’s becoming increasingly clear that we’re in an entirely new place when it comes to…

Elizabeth Carr is head of commercial development at Genomic Prediction, a New Jersey genetic testing startup that says it will assess embryos created in IVF clinics for their future chance of common diseases and then rank them, so parents can pick the one with the best future. It’s a controversial area that has some critics…

When the designer and typographer Marcin Wichary stumbled upon a tiny museum just outside Barcelona five years ago, the experience tipped his interest in the history of technology into an obsession with a very particular part of it: the keyboard. “I have never seen so many typewriters under one roof. Not even close,” he shared…

Atorrus Rainer, age 41, is standing in the center of a stuffy, ­fluorescent-lit room. A virtual-reality headset covers his eyes like oversize goggles. Every so often, he extends his arm, using the VR controller to pick up garbage bags, a toothbrush, and toilet paper during a simulated trip to the supermarket. The experience is limited—Rainer…

Welcome to the Education Issue. I cheated on my editor’s letter. This one that you are reading right now. I’m very sorry. Look, I didn’t set out to do this, but the thing about magazines is that they have very hard deadlines, and if you miss them, you’re left with blank pages. So when I…

Artist Ariel Aberg-Riger is author of America Redux: Visual Stories From Our Dynamic History.

Among the Ojibwe of North America, an older person is referred to as a “great person” and young people are taught not to answer back when chastised by their elders, out of respect for their wisdom. But some of the Chukchi people living in Siberia adhered to a custom based on a very different view…