MIT Technology Review

Last summer, a TikTok creator named Ziggi Tyler posted a video calling out a disturbing problem he found in the app’s Creator Marketplace, a tool that matches creators with brands looking to pay for sponsored content. Tyler said he was unable to enter phrases like “Black Lives Matter” and “supporting Black excellence” into his Marketplace…

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 US military wants to understand the most important software on Earth It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that the whole world is built on top of the Linux kernel—although most…

It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that the whole world is built on top of the Linux kernel—although most people have never heard of it. It is one of the very first programs that load when most computers power up. It enables the hardware running the machine to interact with the software, governs…

Some of the world’s most productive agricultural regions from India to the US Midwest have already broken temperature records this year, with potentially worrying implications for food supplies. Hot days and nights can make drought conditions worse, and that’s not the only way rising temperatures can hurt crops. In extreme conditions, the molecular machinery inside…

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 James Webb Space Telescope just delivered some incredible new images of the universe NASA has released the second set of images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, revealing galaxies, planets, and…

The first images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have been released by NASA, following an initial reveal by US President Joe Biden. JWST’s stunning first science image, which was unveiled by Biden on Monday, is a deep view into the universe showing thousands of galaxies, showcasing the immense power of the $10…

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. Edits to a cholesterol gene could stop the biggest killer on earth The news: A volunteer in New Zealand has become the first person to undergo DNA editing in order to lower their…

A volunteer in New Zealand has become the first person to undergo DNA editing in order to lower their blood cholesterol, a step that may foreshadow wide use of the technology to prevent heart attacks. The experiment, part of a clinical trial by the US biotechnology company Verve Therapeutics, involved injecting a version of the…

PARIS — This is as close as you can get to a rock concert in AI research. Inside the supercomputing center of the French National Center for Scientific Research, on the outskirts of Paris, rows and rows of what look like black fridges hum at a deafening 100 decibels. They form part of a supercomputer…

Amazon, Hello Fresh, Stitch Fix. Click a button, and it’s there in three to five days—perhaps even one. Packages, packages, and more packages—goods from all over the world, delivered after just a couple of clicks. But this height of consumer convenience has been complicating urban life for years, giving rise to increased theft and traffic,…

US President Joe Biden has revealed the first image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), showcasing some of the most distant galaxies ever seen. Announced today from the White House with NASA, the image shows a small portion of the sky—comparable to the span of a grain of sand held at arm’s length—enhanced…

As companies struggle to process, store, and leverage ever-increasing amounts of structured and unstructured data, data governance is becoming a critical part of every company’s data management. Governance not only helps a company understand and use its data, but it ensures everyone has access to the data they need, when they need it. “Data doesn’t…

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 using AI catch breast cancer more often than either does alone The news: Radiologists assisted by an AI diagnose breast cancer more successfully than when they work alone, according to new research.…

Radiologists assisted by an AI screen for breast cancer more successfully than they do when they work alone, according to new research. That same AI also produces more accurate results in the hands of a radiologist than it does when operating solo. The large-scale study, published this month in The Lancet Digital Health, is the…

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 secret police: A private security group regularly sent Minnesota police misinformation about protestors When US marshals shot and killed a 32-year-old Black man named Winston Boogie Smith Jr. in a parking garage…

Khatab Alrawhani, a Yemen-born journalist and activist, thought he could escape the persecution that journalists were experiencing in the Middle East when he left the region. But it followed him. While studying in Washington, DC, in 2015, he published posts denouncing the Houthi coup, in which an armed faction overthrew the Yemeni government. His father…

When US marshals shot and killed a 32-year-old Black man named Winston Boogie Smith Jr. in a parking garage in Minneapolis’s Uptown neighborhood on June 3, 2021, the city was already in a full-blown policing crisis. Around 300 officers had quit over the previous two years amid near-constant protests and public criticism in the wake…

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. Why business is booming for military AI startups Exactly two weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Alexander Karp, the CEO of data analytics company Palantir, made his pitch to European leaders. With…

Exactly two weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Alexander Karp, the CEO of data analytics company Palantir, made his pitch to European leaders. With war on their doorstep, Europeans ought to modernize their arsenals with Silicon Valley’s help, he argued in an open letter. For Europe to “remain strong enough to defeat the threat…

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. These simple changes can make AI research much more energy efficient What’s the news?: Deep learning is behind machine learning’s most high-profile successes. But this incredible performance comes at a cost: training deep-learning…

Deep learning is behind machine learning’s most high-profile successes, such as advanced image recognition, the board game champion AlphaGo, and language models like GPT-3. But this incredible performance comes at a cost: training deep-learning models requires huge amounts of energy. Now, new research shows how scientists who use cloud platforms to train deep-learning algorithms can…

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. No power, no fans, no AC: The villagers fighting to survive India’s deadly heatwaves The residents of Nagla Tulai, a farming village in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, have always had…

The UN’s climate panel warns that the world may need to remove billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year in the coming decades, on top of rapid emissions cuts, to prevent or pull the planet back from increasingly dangerous warming levels. A growing number of research groups and startups are working…

Suman Shakya wants me to touch the concrete wall of her bedroom, where her one-year-old son lies soaked with sweat. It burns my hand as if it were a hot pan. “Now imagine sitting in front of a hot pan in this weather for as long as it takes to make rotis for the whole…

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. China wants to control how its famous livestreamers act, speak, and even dress For Zeng, a young Chinese woman, an hour scrolling Douyin, the domestic version of TikTok, has become a daily ritual.…

For Zeng, a young Chinese woman, an hour scrolling Douyin, the domestic version of TikTok, has become a daily ritual. Among its broad range of videos and livestreams, she particularly likes one creator: “Lawyer Longfei.” Every day, Longfei answers her 9 million followers’ legal inquiries live. Many deal with how women should approach tricky divorce…

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 US Supreme Court just gutted the EPA’s power to regulate emissions The news: The Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse-gas emissions has been dealt a massive blow…

The White House is developing a research plan that would guide and set standards for how scientists study one of the more controversial ways of counteracting climate change: solar geoengineering. The basic idea is that we might be able to deliberately tweak the climate system in ways that release more heat into space, cooling an…

As soon as Roe v. Wade was overturned on Friday, June 24, calls for people to delete their period-tracking apps were all over social media. These apps gather extremely personal data that could pinpoint a missed period. The fear is that in the hands of law enforcement, this data could be used to bolster a…

In March 2020, when corporate offices shuttered in the face of the coronavirus pandemic and employees began working from home, companies were forced to find more efficient ways to do business. Call it “The Great Digital Transformation.” Before the pandemic, the average company estimated that transitioning to remote work would take 454 days, according to…

The Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse-gas emissions was dealt a massive blow by the US Supreme Court today. Coming less than a week after it overturned the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade, the court’s decision in West Virginia v. EPA could have far-reaching results for US climate policy…

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 algorithms trap us in a cycle of shame Working in finance at the beginning of the 2008 financial crisis, mathematician Cathy O’Neil got a firsthand look at how much people trusted algorithms—and…

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: Our TR35 list of innovators for 2022 Spoiler alert: our annual Innovators Under 35 list isn’t actually about what a small group of smart young people have been up to (although that’s…

All too often, the work of developing global disaster and climate resiliency happens when disaster—such as a hurricane, earthquake, or tsunami—has already ravaged entire cities and torn communities apart. But Elizabeth Petheo, MBA ’14, says that recently her work has been focused on preparedness. It’s hard to get attention for preparedness efforts, explains Petheo, a…

Especially for people of color, the road to MIT often begins with advice and encouragement from a teacher or guidance counselor. That was the case for Michael Dixon ’88, who grew up on the South Side of Chicago. He’d long been interested in outer space, reading science texts and science fiction as well as watching…

“My focus has always been on social change,” says Steven Lewis Yaffee, PhD ’79, a professor of natural resources and environmental policy at the University of Michigan. “On training practitioners to go out and effect change in the real world.” Yaffee caught the eco bug in middle school in Maryland when he read Rachel Carson’s…

Joseph “Pepe” Fields ’67 has an MIT degree in chemistry, but he’s spent his career working all over the world in international management. And recently, he’s been driving a recreational vehicle around the US to build affordable housing with a Habitat for Humanity program called RV Care-A-Vanners. RV owners who join the program drive to…

On July 1, Stephen D. Baker ’84, MArch ’88, begins his one-year term as president of the MIT Alumni Association, succeeding Annalisa Weigel ’94, ’95, SM ’00, PhD ’02. Baker’s long history with MIT began with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture. He is currently president and senior principal of BWA Architecture, a 27-person firm…

On March 23, 1912, the very day the subway connecting Boston and Cambridge opened to the public, another event took place that would change Kendall Square even more profoundly than the new, state-of-the-art transit system. As fate would have it, that was the day when a large swath of property adjacent to the square was…

Secreted beneath MIT’s Killian Court and accessible only through a subterranean labyrinth of tunnels, a clandestine lab conducts boundary-pushing research, fed by money siphoned from a Department of Defense grant. In these shadowed, high-tech halls, astrophysicist and astronaut Valentina Resnick-Baker, who is experiencing strange phenomena after an encounter with a planet-threatening asteroid, discovers she has…

The MIT Morningside Academy for Design, an interdisciplinary center that aims to build on the Institute’s leadership in design-­focused education and become a global hub for design research, thinking, and entrepreneurship, will launch in September 2022, President L. Rafael Reif announced in March. The academy, which will be housed in the Metropolitan Warehouse with the…

MIT will be taking several new measures to support its Indigenous community and advance scholarship on the history of Native Americans and the Institute, President L. Rafael Reif announced in April. In the spring of 2021, the Institute launched 21H.283 (The Indigenous History of MIT), a class that explores the ways MIT’s history intersects with the…

There are still parts of Philadelphia’s SEPTA transportation system that accept tokens. But today, in nearly every major American city, you’ll see transit riders tapping their way onto buses and subway platforms using their phones. The shift has been swift. Like so many things consumers brushed off as needlessly complicated before the pandemic—QR codes, order…