MIT Technology Review

IBM, number 39 on our list of the 50 Smartest Companies, overhyped its Watson machine-learning system, but the company still could have the best access to the kind of data needed to make medicine much smarter.

Using his background in chemistry, CEO Joseph DeSimone has taken a whole new approach to advanced manufacturing, enabling Carbon, number 18 on our list of the 50 Smartest Companies, to print materials with a broad range of useful properties.

A British company, number 32 on our list of the 50 Smartest Companies, bets a tiny analyzer will change how we look at DNA.

Superstar companies are dominating the economy by exploiting a growing gap in digital competencies.

Neuroscientist Kay Tye tackles the physical basis of emotions and behavior.

As part of its shift toward high-tech businesses, the 125-year-old company, number 40 on our list of the 50 Smartest Companies, is threading artificial intelligence throughout its operations, starting with its scientists.

A few companies that master digital technologies are capturing huge chunks of the economy. Does this explain the persistence of slow growth?

Our editors pick the 50 companies that best combine innovative technology with an effective business model.

Alphabet, number 5 on our list of the 50 Smartest Companies, thinks it can wrest the cloud computing market away from Amazon by helping companies make use of machine learning with a tool called TensorFlow.

A product idea hatched at MIT evolves into biodegradable menstrual pads—and a win for gender equity.

Melonee Wise’s startup Fetch Robotics employs about 50 people and more than 125 robots. She intends to create many more jobs for both.

The giant e-commerce platform Alibaba and its charismatic founder, Jack Ma, have a plan to add a million U.S. jobs by enticing American companies to sell to China.

The People’s Bank of China has developed a digital currency that’s designed to scale to the number of transactions made every day across the country.

Its new CEO will inherit many problems, but a business plan based on the elusive dream of driverless cars is the largest.

Whether he’s blocking a 300-pound defensive lineman or hitting the math books, this doctoral candidate just won’t quit.

Whether he’s blocking a 300-pound defensive lineman or hitting the math books, this doctoral candidate just won’t quit.

Tech startups helped turn a handful of metro areas into megastars. Now they’re tearing those cities apart.

Nearly two dozen researchers critique a proposal for wind, solar, and water power gaining traction in policy circles.

New technologies for storing power from wind and solar farms will be key to a clean-energy future. But Aquion Energy’s recent bankruptcy shows the market challenge of making that happen.

Wheelys tests a 24-hour store run entirely by technology.

Chinese parents can now decode the genomes of their healthy newborns, revealing disease risks as well as the likelihood of physical traits like male-pattern baldness.

VR can be the basis of a new communications industry if the technology becomes less insular and isolating.

A startup called Darwin Life says it will use a controversial fertility technique to help forty-somethings get pregnant for $100,000.

A startup called Darwin Life says it will use a controversial fertility technique to help forty-somethings get pregnant for $100,000.

Courts, banks, and other institutions are using automated data analysis systems to make decisions about your life. Let’s not leave it up to the algorithm makers to decide whether they’re doing it appropriately.

A community of San Diego retirees is using the personal-assistant gadget to listen to audiobooks, keep current with family news, and control home appliances.

In an exclusive interview, the CEO of Apple talks about artificial intelligence in iPhones and why he doesn’t want to talk about the future.

In Rwanda, an early commercial test of unmanned aerial vehicles cuts a medical facility’s time to procure blood from four hours to 15 minutes.

The White House’s deep proposed cuts to energy R&D could cede leadership to China, and derail the international Mission Innovation partnership.

Loxo Oncology is developing a so-called “tumor agnostic” drug that requires expensive genetic testing often not covered by insurance.

Seventy percent of cancers caught early are curable. Can a blood test find them?

Verizon has devised a system of cameras, sensors, and algorithms that can track the number of times cars fail to yield to bicyclists and pedestrians at a particular intersection.

A pending cap-and-trade bill would earmark hundreds of millions of dollars for clean energy research, as the White House takes aim at federal funding.

The genetic testing company wants customers to do an experiment to help uncover genetic links to pain.

New ideas in chip design look likely to keep software getting smarter.

Mycroft’s voice-enabled assistant is embodied in the startup’s friendly looking Mark 1 gadget, but you can build it into all kinds of devices.

An industry outsider will help Ford navigate an altered car industry and compete with the likes of Google and Uber.

A dexterous multi-fingered robot practiced using virtual objects in a simulated world, showing how machine learning and the cloud could revolutionize manual work.

Todd Holmdahl says that starting from behind won’t keep Microsoft from winning the race to commercialize quantum computing.

Making machines inquisitive could improve their ability to perform important complex tasks.

Tech companies think biology may solve a looming data storage problem.

Tech companies think biology may solve a looming data storage problem.

Elite players of the strategy game reveal how they would fight high-level AI bots created by DeepMind, Facebook, and other tech companies.

Our electric supply is increasingly vulnerable to cyberattack, and new technologies aim to sound the alarm earlier.

The administration wants to weaken the “social cost of carbon” as it looks to overhaul Obama’s climate regulations.

Startup Spirit AI says it has a solution to the growing problem of harassment in online games: a sensitive bot.

Behind one woman’s decision to pursue a medical career at a San Francisco Internet startup.

Training software to accurately sum up information in documents could have great impact in many fields, such as medicine, law, and scientific research.

Banks and investors have sunk millions into the idea that blockchain programs called smart contracts can make finance and other industries more efficient.

Chip maker Nvidia leads the race to power the machine-learning gold rush, but competition is coming from tech giants and startups.