MIT Technology Review

Every day across Hollywood, scores of film school graduates and production assistants work as script readers. Their job is to find the diamonds in the rough from the 50,000 or so screenplays pitched each year and flag any worth pursuing further. Each script runs anywhere from 100 to 150 pages, and it can take half...

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 US can learn from the role of AI in other elections When the generative AI boom kicked off, one of the biggest concerns was that hyperrealistic deepfakes could be used to...

MIT Technology Review set out last year to recognize 15 companies from around the world that demonstrated they have a real shot at meaningfully driving down greenhouse-gas emissions and safeguarding society from the worst impacts of climate change. We're excited to announce that we took up the task again this year and will publish our...

The reality of climate change has spurred enormous public and private investment worldwide, funding initiatives to mitigate its effects and to adapt to its impacts. That investment has spawned entire industries and countless new businesses, resulting in the creation of new green jobs and contributions to economic growth. In the United States, this includes the...

Sales of new electric vehicles in Germany have plummeted, dropping nearly 37% in July 2024 from the same month one year ago. One of the main reasons traces back to mid-December 2023, when the German government gave less than one week's notice before ending its subsidy program for electric vehicles. The program had given drivers...

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 models let robots carry out tasks in unfamiliar environments What's new: It's tricky to get robots to do things in environments they've never seen before. Typically, researchers need to train them on...

It's tricky to get robots to do things in environments they've never seen before. Typically, researchers need to train them on new data for every new place they encounter, which can become very time-consuming and expensive. Now researchers have developed a series of AI models that teach robots to complete basic tasks in new surroundings...

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. September will soon be drawing to a close. The kids are back to school, and those of us in the Northern Hemisphere are experiencing the joys the end...

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. Why virologists are getting increasingly nervous about bird flu Bird flu has been spreading in dairy cows in the US-and the scale is likely to be far worse than it looks. In addition,...

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review's weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. In February 2024, a broken utility pole brought down power lines near the small town of Stinnett, Texas. In the following weeks, the fire reportedly sparked by that equipment grew to burn...

Bird flu has been spreading in dairy cows in the US-and the scale of the spread is likely to be far worse than it looks. In addition, 14 human cases have been reported in the US since March. Both are worrying developments, say virologists, who fear that the country's meager response to the virus is...

AI-generated falsehoods and deepfakes seem to have had no effect on election results in the UK, France, and the European Parliament this year, according to new research. Since the beginning of the generative-AI boom, there has been widespread fear that AI tools could boost bad actors' ability to spread fake content with the potential 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. There are more than 120 AI bills in Congress right now More than 120 bills related to regulating artificial intelligence are currently floating around the US Congress. This flood of bills is indicative...

More than 120 bills related to regulating artificial intelligence are currently floating around the US Congress. They're pretty varied. One aims to improve knowledge of AI in public schools, while another is pushing for model developers to disclose what copyrighted material they use in their training. Three deal with mitigating AI robocalls, while two address...

Before I get to Snap's new Spectacles, a confession: I have a long history of putting goofy new things on my face and liking it. Back in 2011, I tried on Sony's head-mounted 3D glasses and, apparently, enjoyed them. Sort of. At the beginning of 2013, I was enamored with a Kickstarter project I saw...

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. Why OpenAI's new model is such a big deal Last week OpenAI released a new model called o1 (previously referred to under the code name Strawberry" and, before that, Q*) that blows GPT-4o...

This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get it in your inbox first,sign up here. Last weekend, I got married at a summer camp, and during the day our guests competed in a series of games inspired by the show Survivor that my now-wife and I orchestrated. When we were...

Early next year, Google and its partners plan to launch the first in a series of satellites that together would provide close-up, frequently refreshed images of wildfires around the world, offering data that could help firefighters battle blazes more rapidly, effectively, and safely. The online search giant's nonprofit and research arms have collaborated with 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. Why we need an AI safety hotline -Kevin Frazier is an assistant professor at St. Thomas University College of Law and senior research fellow in the Constitutional Studies Program at the University of...

In the past couple of years, regulators have been caught off guard again and again as tech companies compete to launch ever more advanced AI models. It's only a matter of time before labs release another round of models that pose new regulatory challenges. We're likely just weeks away, for example, from OpenAI's release 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. Chatbots can persuade people to stop believing in conspiracy theories The internet has made it easier than ever before to encounter and spread conspiracy theories. And while some are harmless, others can be...

Have you ever found yourself lost in a building that felt impossible to navigate? Thoughtful building design should center on the people who will be using those buildings. But that's no mean feat. It's not just about navigation, either. Just think of an office that left you feeling sleepy or unproductive, or perhaps a health...

The internet has made it easier than ever before to encounter and spread conspiracy theories. And while some are harmless, others can be deeply damaging, sowing discord and even leading to unnecessary deaths. Now, researchers believe they've uncovered a new tool for combating false conspiracy theories: AI chatbots. Researchers from MIT Sloan and Cornell University...

As long as chatbots have been around, they have made things up. Such hallucinations" are an inherent part of how AI models work. However, they're a big problem for companies betting big on AI, like Google, because they make the responses it generates unreliable. Google is releasing a tool today to address the issue. Called...

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. Meet the radio-obsessed civilian shaping Ukraine's drone defense Drones have come to define the brutal conflict in Ukraine that has now dragged on for more than two and a half years. And most...

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review's weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. One way to know where a field is going? Take a look at what the sharpest new innovators are working on. Good news for all of us: MIT Technology Review's list of...

Serhii Flash" Beskrestnov hates going to the front line. The risks terrify him. I'm really not happy to do it at all," he says. But to perform his particular self-appointed role in the Russia-Ukraine war, he believes it's critical to exchange the relative safety of his suburban home north of the capital for places where...

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. Google says it's made a quantum computing breakthrough that reduces errors The news: Google researchers claim to have made a breakthrough in quantum error correction, one that could pave the way for quantum...

I was raised in the 1980s and '90s, and for my generation and generations before us, the public library was an equalizing force in every town, helping anyone move toward the American dream. In Chantilly, Virginia, where I grew up, it didn't matter if you didn't have a computer or your parents lacked infinite money...

Google researchers claim to have made a breakthrough in quantum error correction, one that could pave the way for quantum computers that finally live up to the technology's promise. Proponents of quantum computers say the machines will be able to benefit scientific discovery in fields ranging from particle physics to drug and materials design-if only...

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: our 35 Innovators Under 35 list for 2024 Tomorrow's technologies are being developed today. And every year, we recognize young people from around the world who are leading the way through their...

Shawn Shan is one of MIT Technology Review's 2024 Innovators Under 35.Meet the rest of this year's honorees. When image-generating models such as DALL-E 2, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion kick-started the generative AI boom in early 2022, artists started noticing odd similarities between AI-generated images and those they'd created themselves. Many found that their work...

This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get it in your inbox first,sign up here. Video game development has long been plagued by fear of the crunch"-essentially, being forced to work overtime on a game to meet a deadline. In the early days of video games, the crunch was often...

Robots perceive the world around them very differently from the way humans do. When we walk down the street, we know what we need to pay attention to-passing cars, potential dangers, obstacles in our way-and what we don't, like pedestrians walking in the distance. Robots, on the other hand, treat all the information they receive...

In an era of unprecedented technological advancement, the health-care industry stands at a crossroad. As health expenditure continues to outpace GDP in many countries, health-care executives grapple with crucial decisions on investment prioritization for digitization, innovation, and digital transformation. The imperative to provide high-quality, patient-centric care in an increasingly digital world has never been more...

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. Roblox is launching a generative AI that builds 3D environments in a snap What's new: Roblox has announced plans to roll out a generative AI tool that will let creators make whole 3D...

Celebrate 125 years of MIT Technology Review! This is a special year for MIT Technology Review, and we could not have reached this milestone without the support of our readers. With the release of our 125th anniversary issue, we are extending our gratitude of your loyalty by offering subscribers a chance to win a complimentary...

Roblox plans to roll out a generative AI tool that will let creators make whole 3D scenes just using text prompts, it announced today. Once it's up and running, developers on the hugely popular online game platform will be able to simply write Generate a race track in the desert," for example, and the AI...

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 plants could mine metals from the soil Nickel may not grow on trees-but there's a chance it could someday be mined using plants. Many plants naturally soak up metal and concentrate it...

Nickel may not grow on trees-but there's a chance it could someday be mined using plants. Many plant species naturally soak up metal and concentrate it in their tissues, and new funding will support research on how to use that trait for plant-based mining, or phytomining. Seven phytomining projects just received $9.9 million in funding...

The Human Genome Project, SpaceX's rocket technology, and Tesla's Autopilot system may seem worlds apart in form and function, but they all share a common characteristic: the use of open-source software (OSS) to drive innovation. Offering publicly accessible code that can be viewed, modified, and distributed freely, OSS expedites developer productivity and creates a collaborative...

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. A brief guide to the greenhouse gases driving climate change Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) is used in high-voltage equipment on the grid. It's also, somewhat inconveniently, a monster greenhouse gas. Greenhouse gases are those...

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review's weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. For the last week or so, I've been obsessed with a gas that I'd never given much thought to before. Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) is used in high-voltage equipment on the grid. It's...

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 UK is building an alarm system for climate tipping points The news: The UK's new moonshot research agency just launched an 81 million ($106 million) program to develop early warning systems to...

The UK's new moonshot research agency just launched an 81 million ($106 million) program to develop early warning systems to sound the alarm if Earth gets perilously close to crossing climate tipping points. A climate tipping point is a threshold beyond which certain ecosystems or planetary processes begin to shift from one stable state to...

To tackle complex global problems such as preventing disease and mitigating climate change, we're going to need new ideas from our brightest minds. Every year, MIT Technology Review identifies a new class of Innovators Under 35 taking on these and other challenges. On September 10, we will honor the 2024 class of Innovators Under 35....

The Olympic Games in Paris just finished last month and the Paralympics are still underway, so the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles feel like a lifetime from now. But the prospect of watching the games in his home city has Josh Kahn, a filmmaker in the sports entertainment world who has worked in content...

This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get it in your inbox first,sign up here. This back-to-school season marks the third year in which AI models like ChatGPT will be used by thousands of students around the globe (among them my nephews, who tell me with glee each time they...

This year, close to half the world's population has the opportunity to participate in an election. And according to a steady stream of pundits, institutions, academics, and news organizations, there's a major new threat to the integrity of those elections: artificial intelligence. The earliest predictions warned that a new AI-powered world was, apparently, propelling us...