MIT Technology Review

Everywhere from business to medicine to the climate, forecasting the future is a complex and absolutely critical job. So how do you do it—and what comes next?

In a race to cure his daughter, a Google programmer enters the world of hyper-personalized drugs.

Predictions of any importance are never only about saying what will happen. Right or wrong, they also shape the course of events.

And wherever humans go, they’ll be taking satellite constellations with them to moon and Mars.

These are the big trends of the coming decades that need to be considered for any new technologies to be successful.

An introduction to our March/April 2020 special issue on prediction

Here’s a list of promising drugs being tried on people infected with the virus.

These canaries in the coal mines of AI would be signs that superintelligent robot overlords are approaching

The app is another entrant in the new age of intimate social media. Can it actually make you feel closer to someone?

The first results from the mission depict a complex Martian interior and geology, but raise new questions about the planet’s history.

It has fueled prosperity of the last 50 years. But the end is now in sight.

Without design fiction, critical hits like Black Mirror would look very different.

The robot mandala is a faster and—proponents argue, easier—way to create the traditional sand artwork used for Buddhist meditation.

The Democratic presidential candidate has adopted more favorable views of fracking, nuclear, and carbon removal than his more progressive rivals.

A regime known for iron-fisted control can’t keep all its secrets on the global internet.

Artificial intelligence won’t be very smart if computers don’t grasp cause and effect. That’s something even humans have trouble with.

A two inch piece of tape fooled the Tesla’s cameras and made the car quickly and mistakenly speed up.

The AI moonshot was founded in the spirit of transparency. This is the inside story of how competitive pressure eroded that idealism.

Synthetic versions of the deadly virus could help test treatments. But what are the risks when viruses can be synthetized from scratch?

A lack of government regulation isn’t just bad for consumers. It’s bad for the field, too.

There’s a new crowd of would-be oracles, determined not to replicate the mistakes of their predecessors.

But it’s hard to see how her bold proposals would pass even if she does win the presidency.

Here’s what we learned after NASA’s New Horizons probe flew by the most distant object ever visited: Arrokoth.

Tracking people to tell them whether they’ve been in close contact with a virus carrier might cause a whole new series of complicated issues.

But can the oil and gas sector really go carbon free?

The lab test suggests a reliable quantum internet between cities might be possible.

The Allen Institute wants to crowdsource navigation algorithms by letting researchers turn their robots loose in its physical and virtual apartments.

Social media has zipped information and misinformation around the world at unprecedented speeds, fueling panic, racism … and hope.