MIT Technology Review

Welcome to the very first China Report newsletter! I’m Zeyi Yang, and every Tuesday I’ll bring you news about China’s technology industry. This week, let’s unpack recent actions on China from the Biden administration. Lately, President Biden has been getting busy with executive orders that are, without naming China, very related to China. In the…

Liza Fisher is preparing for a busy day. In about an hour, her mother will drive her to a clinic, where she will receive IV fluids and iron treatments for her anemia. When the IV bag is empty, she’ll head to an adaptive gym, where she’ll don compression pants and take a class for people…

Retailers face an evolving landscape of fraud tactics each day. It’s why companies are increasingly turning to AI to try and catch threat patterns never seen before, and block attacks before they ever happen. While this approach lends itself to efficiency, it’s also one that relies on increasingly complex data profiles of consumers. In this…

Welcome to The Algorithm 2.0! I’m Melissa Heikkilä, MIT Technology Review’s senior reporter for AI. I’m so happy you’re here. Every week I will demystify the latest AI breakthroughs and cut through the hype. This week, I want to talk to you about some of the unforeseen consequences that might come from one of the hottest…

Nearly a decade after they emerged from science labs, AI and machine learning are firmly embedded in enterprise technology environments and are starting to generate value for many businesses. It is increasingly difficult to find organizations that have not at least explored AI use in their business in some way. In a survey, conducted by…

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 artist is dominating AI-generated art. And he’s not happy about it. Those cool AI-generated images you’ve seen across the internet? There’s a good chance they are based on the works of Greg…

YouTube’s recommendation algorithm drives 70% of what people watch on the platform. That algorithm shapes the information billions of people consume, and YouTube has controls that purport to allow people to adjust what it shows them. But, a new study finds, those tools don’t do much. Instead, users have little power to keep unwanted videos—including…

You may have noticed it’s a little harder to get around in cyberspace. More six-digit authorization codes texted to your phone. More requests to confirm the name of your first pet or fourth-grade teacher. More boxes to check to “trust this device.” Overall, having to prove more often that you are you. It’s not your…

Those cool AI-generated images you’ve seen across the internet? There’s a good chance they are based on the works of Greg Rutkowski. Rutkowski is a Polish digital artist who uses classical painting styles to create dreamy fantasy landscapes. He has made illustrations for games such as Sony’s Horizon Forbidden West, Ubisoft’s Anno, Dungeons & Dragons,…

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. An AI that can design new proteins could help unlock new cures and materials What’s happened?: A new AI tool could help researchers discover previously unknown proteins and design entirely new ones. When…

Hello, and welcome to this first edition of The Checkup! Every week I’ll be covering what I think are the most exciting, fascinating, and controversial developments in health, medical science, and biotech—and how they might help diagnose, treat, enhance, or even harm us. Thanks for joining me! (If you want to be among the first…

Climate change very likely intensified the South Asian monsoon that flooded Pakistan in recent weeks, killing more than 1,000 people and destroying nearly 2 million homes. That’s according to a new analysis by World Weather Attribution, a network of scientists who use climate models, weather observations, and other tools to determine whether global warming increased…

A new AI tool could help researchers discover previously unknown proteins and design entirely new ones. When harnessed, it could help unlock the development of more efficient vaccines, speed up research for the cure to cancer, or lead to completely new materials. Alphabet-owned AI lab DeepMind took the world by surprise in 2020 when it…

After crunching through thousands of chest x-rays and the clinical reports that accompany them, an AI has learned to spot diseases in those scans as accurately as a human radiologist. The majority of current diagnostic AI models are trained on scans labeled by humans, but that labeling is a time-consuming process. The new model, called…

Data governance has historically been a serious bottleneck for analytics. While managing data to ensure it complies with policies and regulations is important, these processes can also make it difficult to locate and access data. Businesses that govern data at scale, in real time, and in the cloud often find the situation even more complicated.…

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 Merge is here: Ethereum has switched to proof of stake What’s happened: “The Merge”, a major upgrade to the Ethereum cryptocurrency platform, was finally completed early this morning after a six-year buildup.…

“The Merge”, a major upgrade to the Ethereum cryptocurrency platform, was finally completed today after a six-year buildup. As of 2:43 ET this morning, Ethereum now uses proof of stake, a way to approve new transactions that promises to cut the blockchain’s energy requirements by 99.9% and usher in a new era for the second-largest…

There’s a new text-to-image AI in town. With ERNIE-ViLG, a new AI developed by the Chinese tech company Baidu, you can generate images that capture the cultural specificity of China. It also makes better anime art than DALL-E 2 or other Western image-making AIs. But there are many things—like Tiananmen Square, the country’s second-largest city…

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. What are quantum-resistant algorithms—and why do we need them? Cryptographic algorithms are what keep us safe online, protecting our privacy and securing the transfer of information. But many experts fear that quantum computers…

Cryptographic algorithms are what keep us safe online, protecting our privacy and securing the transfer of information. But many experts fear that quantum computers could one day break these algorithms, leaving us open to attack from hackers and fraudsters. And those quantum computers may be ready sooner than many people think. That’s why there is…

Since the first ATM was installed in 1967 and New York’s Nasdaq exchange debuted digital trading in 1971, the financial services industry has been a frontrunner in technological innovation. But for decades, technology remained a back-office affair, servicing traders and executives who called the shots. Today, however, technology has been propelled to the top 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. The US is launching a trial for blood tests that promise to catch cancers earlier The news: The US is launching a national trial to assess how effective tests designed to spot signs…

Most cancers can’t be reliably screened for before symptoms begin—tools like mammograms and pap smears are exceptions, not the rule. To improve detection, dozens of companies have designed single tests to spot signs of multiple kinds of cancer in blood drawn from a patient’s arm. Now, a national trial is preparing to launch in the…

It’s no secret that digital predators are lurking online in record numbers, exposing others to harmful language, images, videos, and activities. With 300 hours of user-generated content uploaded to the internet every minute, protecting unsuspecting users has become a mammoth task. According to Variety, user-generated content represents 39% of all time spent with media. So,…

If today’s metaverse were a shopping mall, you could visit any number of department stores, each with its own rich selection of products and experiences. You could pop into virtual platforms like Roblox to buy a new outfit for your avatar or stop by Decentraland to gauge the latest valuation of digital real estate. You…

Here’s a thought experiment: It’s just a few years from now, and you’re shopping for new sneakers. You get a mobile notification from your favorite retailer—a pair you’ve been eyeing is on sale. You promptly grab your VR glasses and step into a digital representation of the store, where you design your fully personalized shoes,…

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. I took an international trip with my frozen eggs to learn about the fertility industry Like me, my eggs were flying economy class, writes Anna Louie Sussman. My dog Stewie and I were…

Like me, my eggs were flying economy class. We—my dog Stewie and I—were in seat 8D, while 12 of my cryopreserved oocytes, four straws of three eggs each, had a window seat further back. They were ensconced in a cryogenic storage flask, known as a dewar, which was packed into a rolling metal suitcase the…

Roblox users will soon be able to give their avatars facial expressions that mimic the player’s own, the platform announced today. The update, announced today at the Roblox Developer Conference, will be available only to select creators on the platform for now, but is expected to be widely available to all Roblox users by early…

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 conservative Facebook groups are changing what books children read in school Conservative Facebook groups that rate and review children’s books are being used as a way to campaign for restricting certain books…

A new x-ray technique that works alongside a deep-learning algorithm to detect explosives in luggage could eventually catch potentially deadly tumors in humans. Concealing explosives inside electronics and other objects can make it difficult to detect them using conventional x-ray techniques. But the new method was able to detect explosives with 100% accuracy under test…

Conservative Facebook groups that rate and review children’s books are being used as a way to campaign for restricting certain books in school libraries or removing them altogether. It’s the latest development in a debate tearing up the US in recent weeks as schools open for the new year. In October 2021, Matt Krause, a…

The covid-19 pandemic is still not over. And while injected vaccines provide good protection from severe disease, they don’t stop us from catching the virus or spreading it to others. Vaccines that you inhale through the nose or mouth, on the other hand, potentially could. In the last week, regulatory bodies in both India and…

As more business, shopping, and banking is done online and from, well, anywhere, customers increasingly expect high-quality digital-first services that remove the need to go into a physical store or bank. “People were working from home, shopping from home, banking from home, and are more tech and digital savvy than ever,” says Mike Dargan, group…

If you were just looking at his LinkedIn page, you’d certainly think Mai Linzheng was a top-notch engineer. With a bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua, China’s top university, and a master’s degree in semiconductor manufacturing from UCLA, Mai began his career at Intel and KBR, a space tech company, before ending up at SpaceX in 2013.…

In today’s digital economy, people buy things differently. Customers expect interactions with companies to be thoughtful, customized, curated, and most importantly, quick. These experiences drive—and are driven by— technology’s constant progress. However, the advance of technology can cause headaches for the businesses delivering these interactions, even with the most talented product and delivery teams. Customization…