Why China’s EV ambitions need virtual power plants
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. The first time I heard the term “virtual power plants,” I was reporting on how extreme heat waves in 2022 had overwhelmed the Chinese grid and led the government to restrict electric-vehicle…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/21/1088748/virtual-power-plant-electric-vehicle/
Meet the divers trying to figure out how deep humans can go
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Two hundred thirty meters into one of the deepest underwater caves on Earth, Richard “Harry” Harris knew that not far ahead of him was a 15-meter drop leading to a place no human being had seen before. Getting there had taken two helicopters, three weeks of test dives, two tons of equipment, and hard work…
Transforming document understanding and insights with generative AI
At some point over the last two decades, productivity applications enabled humans (and machines!) to create information at the speed of digital—faster than any person could possibly consume or understand it. Modern inboxes and document folders are filled with information: digital haystacks with needles of insight that too often remain undiscovered. Generative AI is an…
The Download: hunting for new matter, and Gary Marcus’ AI critiques
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. Inside the hunt for new physics at the world’s largest particle collider In 2012, using data from CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, researchers discovered a particle called the Higgs boson. In the process, they…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/20/1088705/hunting-new-matter-gary-marcus/
Inside the hunt for new physics at the world’s largest particle collider
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In 1977, Ray and Charles Eames released a remarkable film that, over the course of just nine minutes, spanned the limits of human knowledge. Powers of Ten begins with an overhead shot of a man on a picnic blanket inside a one-square-meter frame. The camera pans out: 10, then 100 meters, then a kilometer, and…
The Download: missions to Jupiter’s moon Europa, and Uruguay’s screwworm gene drive
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 search for extraterrestrial life is targeting Jupiter’s icy moon Europa Europa, Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon, is nothing like ours. Its surface is a vast saltwater ocean, encased in a blanket of cracked ice,…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/19/1088699/jupiter-europa-uruguay-screwworm-gene-drive/
The search for extraterrestrial life is targeting Jupiter’s icy moon Europa
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We’ve known of Europa’s existence for more than four centuries, but for most of that time, Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon was just a pinprick of light in our telescopes—a bright and curious companion to the solar system’s resident giant. Over the last few decades, however, as astronomers have scrutinized it through telescopes and six spacecraft have…
Roundtables: Building a Cleaner Future: Better Batteries and Their Materials
Recorded on February 15, 2024 Building a Cleaner Future: Better Batteries and Their Materials Speakers: Casey Crownhart, Climate reporter, David Rotman, Editor at large, James Temple, Sr Editor of Climate & Energy Electric vehicles are taking to the roads like never before, and a grid with a growing share of renewables like wind and solar…
Uruguay wants to use gene drives to eradicate devastating screwworms
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On a warm, sunny day in Montevideo, Uruguay, the air is smogless and crisp. Inside a highly secured facility at the National Institute of Agricultural Research (INIA) are a sophisticated gene gun, giant microscopes, and tens of thousands of gene-edited flies, their bright blue wings fluttering against the walls of their small, white, netted cages.…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/16/1088505/uruguay-gene-drives-screwworms/
The Download: impressive new AI capabilities
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. OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora OpenAI has built a striking new generative video model called Sora that can take a short text description and turn it into a…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/16/1088579/download-impressive-new-ai-capabilities/
How bacteria-fighting viruses could go mainstream
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. Lynn Cole had a blood infection she couldn’t shake. For years, she was in and out of the hospital. Each time antibiotics would force the infection…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/16/1088457/bacteria-fighting-viruses-lynn-cole/
OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora
OpenAI has built a striking new generative video model called Sora that can take a short text description and turn it into a detailed, high-definition film clip up to a minute long. Based on four sample videos that OpenAI shared with MIT Technology Review ahead of today’s announcement, the San Francisco-based firm has pushed the…
Responsible technology use in the AI age
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The sudden appearance of application-ready generative AI tools over the last year has confronted us with challenging social and ethical questions. Visions of how this technology could deeply alter the ways we work, learn, and live have also accelerated conversations—and breathless media headlines—about how and whether these technologies can be responsibly used. Responsible technology use,…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/15/1087815/responsible-technology-use-in-the-ai-age/
The Download: why batteries rock, and Apple’s VR headset returns problem
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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. Three things to love about batteries It’s hard to pick favorites when it comes to climate technologies. Really, anything that helps us get closer to tackling climate change is worth writing about, both…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/15/1088345/batteries-rock-apple-vr-headset/
Three things to love about batteries
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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. I wouldn’t exactly say I have favorites when it comes to climate technologies. Anything that could help us get closer to tackling climate change is worth writing about, both to share the…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/15/1088267/three-things-to-love-about-batteries/
Providing the right products at the right time with machine learning
Whether your favorite condiment is Heinz ketchup or your preferred spread for your bagel is Philadelphia cream cheese, ensuring that all customers have access to their preferred products at the right place, at the right price, and at the right time requires careful supply chain organization and distribution. Amid the proliferation of e-commerce and shifting…
The Download: China’s digital red packet jamboree, and a methane-leak mapping satellite
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 the internet pushed China’s New Year red packet tradition to the extreme If you ask any child in China what’s the most exciting thing about the Lunar New Year, they are likely…
A new satellite will use Google’s AI to map methane leaks from space
A methane-measuring satellite will launch in March that aims to use Google’s AI to quantify, map, and reduce leaks. The mission is part of a collaboration with the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund, and the result, they say, will be the most detailed portrait yet of methane emissions. It should help to identify the worst spots,…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/14/1088198/satellite-google-ai-map-methane-leaks/
How sulfur could be a surprise ingredient in cheaper, better batteries
The key to building less-expensive batteries that could extend the range of EVs might lie in a cheap, abundant material: sulfur. Addressing climate change is going to require a whole lot of batteries, both to drive an increasingly electric fleet of vehicles and to store renewable power on the grid. Today, lithium-ion batteries are the…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/14/1088177/sulfur-cheaper-better-batteries/
How the internet pushed China’s New Year red packet tradition to the extreme
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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. If you ask any child in China what’s the most exciting thing about welcoming another year, they are likely to answer: the red packets. It’s a festive tradition: During the holidays, people…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/14/1088182/new-year-red-packet-apps/