The Download: mysterious radio energy from outer space, and banning TikTok
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 quest to map the universe with mysterious bursts of radio energy When our universe was less than half as old as it is today, a burst of energy that could cook…
The depressing truth about TikTok’s impending ban
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. Allow me to indulge in a little reflection this week. Last week, the divest-or-ban TikTok bill was passed in Congress and signed into law. Four years ago, when I was just starting…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/05/01/1091951/tiktok-ban-chinese-companies-political/
Inside the quest to map the universe with mysterious bursts of radio energy
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When our universe was less than half as old as it is today, a burst of energy that could cook a sun’s worth of popcorn shot out from somewhere amid a compact group of galaxies. Some 8 billion years later, radio waves from that burst reached Earth and were captured by a sophisticated low-frequency radio…
Roundtables: Inside the Next Era of AI and Hardware
Recorded on April 30, 2024 Inside the Next Era of AI and Hardware Speakers: James O’Donnell, AI reporter, and Charlotte Jee, News editor Hear first-hand from our AI reporter, James O’Donnell, as he walks our news editor Charlotte Jee through the latest goings-on in his beat, from rapid advances in robotics to autonomous military drones,…
The Download: robotics’ data bottleneck, and our AI afterlives
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 robot race is fueling a fight for training data We’re interacting with AI tools more directly—and regularly—than ever before. Interacting with robots, by way of contrast, is still a rarity for most.…
My deepfake shows how valuable our data is in the age of AI
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. Deepfakes are getting good. Like, really good. Earlier this month I went to a studio in East London to get myself digitally cloned by the AI video startup Synthesia. They made…
The robot race is fueling a fight for training data
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Since ChatGPT was released, artificial intelligence has wowed the world. We’re interacting with AI tools more directly—and regularly—than ever before. Interacting with robots, by way of contrast, is still a rarity for most. If you don’t undergo complex surgery or work in logistics, the most advanced robot you encounter in your daily life might still…
The Download: inside the US defense tech aid package, and how AI is improving vegan cheese
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. Here’s the defense tech at the center of US aid to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan After weeks of drawn-out congressional debate over how much the United States should spend on conflicts abroad, President…
Here’s the defense tech at the center of US aid to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan
MIT Technology Review Explains: Let our writers untangle the complex, messy world of technology to help you understand what’s coming next. You can read more from the series here. After weeks of drawn-out congressional debate over how much the United States should spend on conflicts abroad, President Joe Biden signed a $95.3 billion aid package into…
The Download: how to tell when a chatbot is lying, and RIP my biotech plants
Chatbot answers are all made up. This new tool helps you figure out which ones to trust. The news: Large language models are famous for their ability to make things up—in fact, it’s what they’re best at. But their inability to tell fact from fiction has left many businesses wondering if using them is worth…
My biotech plants are dead
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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. Six weeks ago, I pre-ordered the “Firefly Petunia,” a houseplant engineered with genes from bioluminescent fungi so that it glows in the dark. After years of writing about…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/04/26/1091859/my-biotech-plants-are-dead/
Chatbot answers are all made up. This new tool helps you figure out which ones to trust.
Large language models are famous for their ability to make things up—in fact, it’s what they’re best at. But their inability to tell fact from fiction has left many businesses wondering if using them is worth the risk. A new tool, created by Cleanlab, an AI startup spun out of a quantum computing lab at…
The Download: hyperrealistic deepfakes, and clean energy’s implications for mining
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 startup made a hyperrealistic deepfake of me that’s so good it’s scary Until now, AI-generated videos of people have tended to have some stiffness, glitchiness, or other unnatural elements that make…
Want less mining? Switch to clean energy.
Political fights over mining and minerals are heating up, and there are growing environmental and sociological concerns about how to source the materials the world needs to build new energy technologies. But low-emissions energy sources, including wind, solar, and nuclear power, have a smaller mining footprint than coal and natural gas, according to a new…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/04/25/1091765/want-less-mining-switch-to-clean-energy/
Hydrogen could be used for nearly everything. It probably shouldn’t be.
This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. From toaster ovens that work as air fryers to hair dryers that can also curl your hair, single tools that do multiple jobs have an undeniable appeal. In the climate world, hydrogen…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/04/25/1091757/hydrogen-uses-ranked/
An AI startup made a hyperrealistic deepfake of me that’s so good it’s scary
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I’m stressed and running late, because what do you wear for the rest of eternity? This makes it sound like I’m dying, but it’s the opposite. I am, in a way, about to live forever, thanks to the AI video startup Synthesia. For the past several years, the company has produced AI-generated avatars, but today…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/04/25/1091772/new-generative-ai-avatar-deepfake-synthesia/
A new kind of gene-edited pig kidney was just transplanted into a person
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A month ago, Richard Slayman became the first living person to receive a kidney transplant from a gene-edited pig. Now, a team of researchers from NYU Langone Health reports that Lisa Pisano, a 54-year-old woman from New Jersey, has become the second. Her new kidney has just a single genetic modification—an approach that researchers hope…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/04/24/1091734/pig-kidney-transplant-thymus/
Almost every Chinese keyboard app has a security flaw that reveals what users type
Almost all keyboard apps used by Chinese people around the world share a security loophole that makes it possible to spy on what users are typing. The vulnerability, which allows the keystroke data that these apps send to the cloud to be intercepted, has existed for years and could have been exploited by cybercriminals and…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/04/24/1091740/chinese-keyboard-app-security-encryption/
The Download: introducing the Build issue
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. Introducing: the Build issue Building is a popular tech industry motif—especially in Silicon Valley, where “Time to build” has become something of a call to arms. Yet the future is built brick by…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/04/24/1091719/the-download-introducing-the-build-issue/
Three takeaways about the state of Chinese tech in the US
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. I’ve wanted to learn more about the world of solar panels ever since I realized just how dominant Chinese companies have become in this field. Although much of the technology involved was…
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/04/24/1091708/takeaways-chinese-tech-us-harvard/