MIT Technology Review

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. Facebook is bombarding cancer patients with ads for unproven treatments The ad reads like an offer of salvation: Cancer kills many people. But there is hope in Apatone, a proprietary vitamin C–based mixture,…

The ad reads like an offer of salvation: Cancer kills many people. But there is hope in Apatone, a proprietary vitamin C–based mixture, that is “KILLING cancer.” The substance, an unproven treatment that is not approved by the FDA, is not available in the United States. If you want Apatone, the ad suggests, you need…

Ever since Facebook’s rebrand to Meta, the metaverse—loosely defined as an extensive online world where interactions happen via digital avatars—has gone mainstream as part of “web3,” the internet’s third act in which users move from consumers to creators to residents in online worlds. The entertainment and gaming industries are at the forefront of today’s metaverse…

The term “smart cities” originated as a marketing strategy for large IT vendors. It has now become synonymous with urban uses of technology, particularly advanced and emerging technologies. But cities are more than 5G, big data, driverless vehicles, and AI. They are crucial drivers of opportunity, prosperity, and progress. They support those displaced by war…

NSO Group, the world’s most notorious hacking company, could soon cease to exist. The Israeli firm, still reeling from US sanctions, has been in talks about a possible acquisition by the American military contractor L3 Harris. The deal is far from certain—there is considerable opposition from both the White House and US intelligence—but if it…

The US Supreme Court has ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 legal decision that enshrined abortion as a constitutional right. Ending federal protection for abortion access across the US will have lasting health, emotional, and financial repercussions for millions of people and casts American reproductive rights back 50 years. The final decision…

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. Yann LeCun has a bold new vision for the future of AI Around a year and a half ago, Yann LeCun realized he had it wrong. LeCun, who is chief scientist at Meta’s…

Around a year and a half ago, Yann LeCun realized he had it wrong. LeCun, who is chief scientist at Meta’s AI lab and one of the most influential AI researchers in the world, had been trying to give machines a basic grasp of how the world works—a kind of common sense—by training neural networks…

In 1959, in a short essay called “The Great Game to Come,” a little-known Dutch visual artist named Constant Nieuwenhuys described a new utopian city—one that he was soon to dub “New Babylon.” “The technical inventions that humanity has at its disposal today,” he presciently stated, “will play a major role in the construction of…

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 to retrofit a city The scars and pockmarks of the aging apartments and housing units under the purview of the New York City Housing Authority don’t immediately communicate the idea of innovation.…

The scars and pockmarks of the aging apartments and housing units under the purview of the New York City Housing Authority don’t immediately communicate the idea of innovation. The largest landlord in the city, housing nearly 1 in 16 New Yorkers, NYCHA has seen its buildings literally crumble after decades of deferred maintenance and poor…

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 world’s biggest surveillance company you’ve never heard of You may never have heard of Hikvision, but chances are you’ve already been captured by one of its millions of cameras. The Chinese company’s…

Every company is collecting data, whether it’s consumer buying habits, demographic data from third-party sources or insights from weather patterns. That’s good news—it wasn’t long ago that this kind of critical information was mostly ignored. But it’s not enough: companies must now start using that data to run every part of their business. There’s more…

You may never have heard of Hikvision, but chances are you’ve already been captured by one of its millions of cameras. The Chinese company’s products can be found anywhere from police surveillance systems to baby monitors in more than 190 countries. Its ability to make decent-quality products at cheap prices (as well as its ties…

In 1930, the telegraph giant Western Union put the finishing touches on its new crown jewel: a 24-story art deco building located at 60 Hudson Street in lower Manhattan. Soon after, over a million telegraphs each day shuttled in and out, carried by a network of cables, pneumatic tubes, and 30 employees in roller skates…

Cyborg locust brains can help spot the telltale signs of human cancer in the lab, a new study has shown. The team behind the work hopes it could one day lead to an insect-based breath test that could be used in cancer screening, or inspire an artificial version that works in much the same way.…

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 delivery apps reshaping life in India’s megacities From 7 a.m. until well past dusk, seven days a week, N. Sudhakar sits behind the counter of his hole-in-the wall grocery store in the…

From 7 a.m. until well past dusk, seven days a week, N. Sudhakar sits behind the counter of his hole-in-the wall grocery store in the south Indian city of Bangalore. Packed floor to ceiling with everything from 20-kilogram sacks of rice to one-rupee ($.01) shampoo sachets, this one-stop shop supplies most of the daily needs…

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 people using humor to troll their spam texts The other night, I received a mysterious WhatsApp message. “Dr. Kevin?” it began, the question mark suggesting the sender felt bad for interrupting my…

The other night, I received a mysterious WhatsApp message. “Dr. Kevin?” it began, the question mark suggesting the sender felt bad for interrupting my evening. “My puppy is very slow and won’t eat dog food. Can you make an appointment for me?” I was mystified. My name is not Kevin, I am not a veterinarian,…

China is fine-tuning its censorship machine, this time proposing changes in how to regulate the billions of online comments posted in the country every day. On June 17, the internet regulator Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) published a draft update on the responsibilities of platforms and content creators in managing online comments. One line stands…

Homophobic misinformation circulating about monkeypox on social media is hampering efforts to curb the disease’s spread, research conducted on behalf of MIT Technology Review has found. There have been 2,093 confirmed cases of the virus reported worldwide as of June 17. So far cases have mainly been identified among men who have sex with men,…

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. Running Tide is facing scientist departures and growing concerns over seaweed sinking for carbon removal Running Tide, an aquaculture company based in Portland, Maine, has said it expected to set tens of thousands…

Running Tide, an aquaculture company based in Portland, Maine, has said it expected to set tens of thousands of tiny floating kelp farms adrift in the North Atlantic between this summer and next. The hope is that the fast-growing macroalgae will eventually sink to the ocean floor, storing away thousands of tons of carbon dioxide…

In the mid-2000s, toads were meeting a gruesome end near Ede, an old, leafy town in the middle of the Netherlands. Local residents came to the rescue. For a few weeks each spring, the town erected a set of temporary fences along a kilometer or so of road, in an area where the animals crossed…

When a matter of seconds or even milliseconds makes the difference between a positive or negative customer experience, you can’t afford to leave the performance of business critical software and artificial intelligence up to chance. Join a discussion on how some of the biggest names in the business accelerate the most challenging workloads on their…

Leaders and managers agree that effective management of external contributors, such as freelancers, contract workers, and app developers, is critical to their organization’s success, but not all believe their organization is sufficiently prepared to manage a workforce that will rely more on external workers. The question now is: How can organizations orchestrate this extended workforce?…

The current 5G evolution in network connectivity is expected to drive unprecedented demands for bandwidth, reliability, and security. However, a network of this magnitude and robustness doesn’t pop up overnight and enterprises and consumers are just beginning to realize the myriad use cases a 5G network can support. For example, consider the increased number of…

The skills and capabilities needed to undergo digital transformation are in high demand as every company jockeys to gain a competitive advantage. To address the skills gap, some companies are prioritizing upskilling and reskilling. But to be effective, learning and development itself must undergo a transformation. According to Daniela Proust, global vice president and head…

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. Where to get abortion pills and how to use them If the US Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the 1973 legal decision that enshrined abortion as a constitutional right, parts of the…

If the US Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the 1973 legal decision that enshrined abortion as a constitutional right, parts of the country will be ready to plunge into a reproductive-rights dark age in which doctors are forbidden from providing any abortions, in some states even in cases of rape, incest, or a fetus…

Plants are the original carbon capture factories—and a new research program aims to make them better ones by using gene editing. The Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI), a research group in Berkeley, California, founded by CRISPR co-inventor Jennifer Doudna, has announced a new program to use the revolutionary gene-editing tool on plants to boost their aptitude…

When David Howes thinks of his home city of Montreal, he thinks of the harmonious tones of carillon bells and the smell of bagels being cooked over wood fires. But when he stopped in at his local tourism office to ask where they recommend that visitors go to smell, taste, and listen to the city,…

Organizations struggle to find a rhythm in the new hybrid world. The shift from enabling hybrid work to optimizing it to deliver exceptional employee experiences is well underway. Join this session, designed for CIOs and supporting teams, for steps to improve the hybrid work experience for employees through an equitable, collaborative, and inclusive strategy. Recent…

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. Marseille’s battle against the surveillance state Across the world, video cameras have become an accepted feature of urban life. Many cities in China now have dense networks of them, and London and New…

Heading toward Marseille’s central train station, Eda Nano points out what looks like a streetlamp on the Rue des Abeilles. Its long stand curves upward to a white dome shading a dark bulb. But this sleek piece of urban furniture is not a lamp. It’s a video camera, with a 360-degree view of the narrow street. …

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 China’s biggest online influencers fell from their thrones No one had foreseen just how fast three of China’s most powerful influencers would fall. On June 3, Austin Li, a 30-year-old live-streamer with…

No one had foreseen just how fast three of China’s most powerful influencers would fall. On June 3, Austin Li, a 30-year-old livestreamer with over 60 million followers on the Alibaba-owned e-commerce platform Taobao, abruptly cut off a stream after a tank-shaped ice cream dessert appeared on the screen. While he later posted that it…

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. Chinese hackers exploited years-old software flaws to break into telecom giants The news: Hackers employed by the Chinese government have broken into numerous major telecommunications firms around the world in a cyber-espionage campaign…

Cutting carbon emissions from planes is going to be difficult—but not impossible. With enough funding, policy support, and alternative fuel, aviation can make enough progress to help the world reach global climate targets by 2050, according to a new report. Today, aviation makes up about 3% of greenhouse-gas emissions worldwide. Some airlines and industry groups…

Hackers employed by the Chinese government have broken into numerous major telecommunications firms around the world in a cyber-espionage campaign that has lasted at least two years, according to a new advisory from American security agencies. The hackers allegedly breached their targets by exploiting old and well-known critical vulnerabilities in popular networking hardware. Once they…

Cryptocurrency is fast gaining mainstream acceptance as consumers look for innovative ways to diversify their savings, protect against inflation, and save on transaction fees. Big-name brands are taking note: PayPal, Starbucks, AT&T, AMC Theatres, Microsoft, and Whole Foods are among a growing battalion of organizations that now accept payment in cryptocurrencies. In fact, nearly 16,000…

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. Meet the LGBTQ activists fighting to be themselves online in Malaysia Nur Sajat Kamaruzzaman has been a public figure in Malaysia for well over a decade. Classically beautiful, she has built a following…