The Download: learning from environmental DNA, and why we should welcome watermarks
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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 environmental DNA is giving scientists a new way to understand our world Environmental DNA is a relatively inexpensive, widespread, potentially automated way to observe the diversity and distribution of life. Unlike previous…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/13/1088108/the-download-environmental-dna-ai-watermarks/
Why Big Tech’s watermarking plans are some welcome good news
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. This week I am happy to bring you some encouraging news from the world of AI. Following the depressing Taylor Swift deepfake porn scandal and the proliferation of political deepfakes, such as AI-generated robocalls…
How environmental DNA is giving scientists a new way to understand our world
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In the late 1980s, at a federal research facility in Pensacola, Florida, Tamar Barkay used mud in a way that proved revolutionary in a manner she could never have imagined at the time: a crude version of a technique that is now shaking up many scientific fields. Barkay had collected several samples of mud —…
The Download: join us at EmTech Digital Europe in London!
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. Join us at EmTech Digital Europe in London For over ten years, academics, policymakers, and business and technology leaders have gathered at our EmTech Digital event in Silicon Valley and on the MIT…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/12/1087982/the-download-emtech-digital-europe-in-london/
This chart shows why heat pumps are still hot in the US
Heat pumps are still a hot technology, though sales in the US, one of the world’s largest markets, fell in 2023. Even with the drop, the appliances beat out gas furnaces for the second year in a row and saw their overall market share increase compared to furnaces, sales of which also fell last year.…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/12/1087970/heat-pumps-hot/
The Download: how to improve pulse oximeters, and OpenAI’s chip plans
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 engineers are working to build better pulse oximeters Visit any health-care facility, and one of the first things they’ll do is clip a pulse oximeter to your finger. These devices, which track…
Why engineers are working to build better pulse oximeters
This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here. Visit any health-care facility, and one of the first things they’ll do is clip a pulse oximeter to your finger. These devices, which track heart rate…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/09/1087956/engineering-better-pulse-oximeters/
The Download: Google’s Gemini plans, and virtual power plants
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. Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out. The news: In the biggest mass-market AI launch yet, Google is rolling out Gemini, its family of large language models,…
Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.
In the biggest mass-market AI launch yet, Google is rolling out Gemini, its family of large language models, across almost all its products, from Android to the iOS Google app to Gmail to Docs and more. A new subscription plan will also give users access to Gemini Ultra, the most powerful version of the model,…
Advanced solar panels still need to pass the test of time
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This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. It must be tough to be a solar panel. They’re consistently exposed to sun, heat, and humidity—and the panels installed today are expected to last 30 years or more. But how can…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/08/1087860/future-for-advanced-solar-cells/
Unlocking the power of sustainability
According to UN climate experts, 2023 was the warmest year on record. This puts the heat squarely on companies to accelerate their sustainability efforts. “It’s quite clear that the sense of urgency is increasing,” says Jonas Bohlin, chief product officer for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) platform provider Position Green. That pressure is coming from…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/07/1087760/unlocking-the-power-of-sustainability/
The Download: China’s chiplets, and OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 watermarking
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 China is betting big on chiplets For the past couple of years, US sanctions have had the Chinese semiconductor industry locked in a stranglehold. Chinese companies can still manufacture chips for today’s…
This Chinese city wants to be the Silicon Valley of chiplets
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This story first appeared in China Report, MIT Technology Review’s newsletter about technology in China. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Tuesday. Last month, MIT Technology Review unveiled our pick for 10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2024. These are the technological advancements that we believe will change our lives today or sometime in the future.…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/07/1087825/chinese-city-silicon-valley-chiplets/
Why China is betting big on chiplets
For the past couple of years, US sanctions have had the Chinese semiconductor industry locked in a stranglehold. While Chinese companies can still manufacture chips for today’s uses, they are not allowed to import certain chipmaking technologies, making it almost impossible for them to produce more advanced products. There is a workaround, however. A relatively…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/06/1087804/china-betting-on-chiplets-packaging/
Building innovation with blockchain
In 2015, JPMorgan Chase embarked on a journey to build a more secure and open wholesale banking. For chief technology officer at Onyx by J.P.Morgan, Suresh Shetty, investing in blockchain, a distributed ledger technology in its early days, was about ubiquity. “We actually weighted ubiquity in terms of who can use the technology, who was…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/06/1087441/building-innovation-with-blockchain/
The Download: using AI to access mental health services, and the natural gas debate
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. A chatbot helped more people access mental-health services The news: An AI chatbot helped increase the number of patients referred for mental-health services through England’s National Health Service (NHS), particularly among underrepresented groups…
What babies can teach AI
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This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. Human babies are fascinating creatures. Despite being completely dependent on their parents for a long time, they can do some amazing stuff. Babies have an innate understanding of the physics of…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/06/1087793/what-babies-can-teach-ai/
We are having the wrong debate about Biden’s decision on liquefied natural gas
Late last month, the Biden administration announced it’s suspending permit applications for exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) as it reevaluates the economic, environmental, and climate impacts of the fuel. LNG is produced by cooling natural gas into a liquid state, making it easier to store and ship to overseas markets. Natural gas itself has been…
A chatbot helped more people access mental-health services
An AI chatbot helped increase the number of patients referred for mental-health services through England’s National Health Service (NHS), particularly among underrepresented groups who are less likely to seek help, new research has found. Demand for mental-health services in England is on the rise, particularly since the covid-19 pandemic. Mental-health services received 4.6 million patient…
The Download: solar geoengineering’s rocky road, and Apple’s driverless ambitions
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. Solar geoengineering could start soon if it starts small —David W. Keith, founding faculty director of the Climate Systems Engineering initiative at the University of Chicago, and Wake Smith, a lecturer at the…