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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. We’re consuming toxic chemicals. Now we need to figure out how they’re affecting us. What are chemical pollutants doing to our bodies? It’s a timely question given that last week, people in Philadelphia…

To say that semiconductor technology is part of the fabric of modern society is not an overstatement—it underpins everything from our cars to our phones to our home appliances.  In 2021, the semiconductor industry shipped a record 1.15 trillion chips, and sales topped half a trillion dollars worldwide, while thousands of new chip designs entered…

This article is from The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, sign up here. What are chemical pollutants doing to our bodies? It’s a question that’s been on my mind this week, for a few reasons. Last week, people in Philadelphia cleared grocery shelves of bottled…

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 cozy but creepy world of VR sleep rooms People are gathering in virtual spaces to relax, and even sleep, with their headsets on. VR sleep rooms are becoming popular among people…

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 spent last week in Washington, DC, and when I wasn’t fawning over the cherry blossoms, I was soaking up all the newest and wildest ideas in energy.  The Advanced Research Projects Agency…

Lo-fi chill music was playing in the distance. Shooting stars sliced through the sparkling galaxy overhead. I was defying physics, hovering in space, on my back. Relaxed, I yawned and stretched, my fist punching a pillow that I had forgotten about. I was, of course, not in space. Physically, I was on a chaise in…

As the emergence of radically disruptive technologies over the last decades has created, destroyed, or fundamentally changed many business models, most organizations have undergone some kind of digital transformation in response. Many have been reluctant, however, to acknowledge the degree to which they need to disrupt their standard way of working to succeed in this…

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. Chinese creators use Midjourney’s AI to generate retro urban “photography” Across social media, a number of creators are generating nostalgic photographs of China with the help of AI. Even though these images get…

China Report is MIT Technology Review’s newsletter about technology developments in China. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Tuesday. If you saw these images pop up on your timeline, would you be able to tell if they were real photographs of the southwestern city of Chongqing in the 1990s? In fact, none of them…

The industrial metaverse—a metaverse sector that mirrors and simulates real machines, factories, cities, transportation networks, and other highly complex systems—will offer to its participants fully immersive, real-time, interactive, persistent, and synchronous representations and simulations of the real world.  Existing and developing technologies, including digital twins, artificial intelligence and machine learning, extended reality, blockchain, and cloud…

Greater speed and agility are helping organizations address an increasingly competitive marketplace, heightened customer expectations, and the lingering impact of the pandemic. To compete more effectively, companies are gathering and analyzing increasingly large and disparate sets of data. But only with cloud solutions, like Microsoft Azure, can this data provide insight into every corner of…

When seemingly disparate fields, industries, and ways of thinking merge, a convergence happens, which, has the power to build more intuitive and advanced futures for both organizations and the everyday consumer, says Accenture communications, media and technology industry group chair, Kathleen O’Reilly and Daniela Rus, Director of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL),…

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. Microplastics are messing with the microbiomes of seabirds The news: While we know that tiny pieces of plastic are everywhere, we don’t fully understand what they’re doing to us or other animals. Now,…

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. Think of a teacher. Close your eyes. What does that person look like? If you ask Stable Diffusion or DALL-E 2, two of the most popular AI image generators, it’s a white…

Tiny pieces of plastic are everywhere. They’re in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. By one estimate, some people ingest around a credit card’s worth of plastic every week. Microplastics have been found in human blood, placentas, and feces. But we don’t fully understand what all these minuscule…

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. ChatGPT is about to revolutionize the economy. We need to decide what that looks like. Whether it’s based on hallucinatory beliefs or not, a gold rush has started over the last several months…

This article is from The Technocrat, MIT Technology Review’s weekly tech policy newsletter about power, politics, and Silicon Valley. To receive it in your inbox every Friday, sign up here. Earlier this week, I was chatting with a policy professor in Washington, DC, who told me that students and colleagues alike are asking about GPT-4…

Whether it’s based on hallucinatory beliefs or not, an artificial-intelligence gold rush has started over the last several months to mine the anticipated business opportunities from generative AI models like ChatGPT. App developers, venture-backed startups, and some of the world’s largest corporations are all scrambling to make sense of the sensational text-generating bot released by…

When Lenovo set out to transition into a services-led company, they began by looking internally, says Art Hu, Lenovo’s senior vice president & chief information, technology and delivery officer of the Solutions & Services Group. To offer products and services that provide valuable business outcomes rather than traditional one-off hardware delivery, the company evolved internal…

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. Newly-revealed coronavirus data has reignited a debate over the virus’s origins This week, we’ve seen the resurgence of a debate that has been swirling since the start of the pandemic—where did the virus…

This article is from The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, sign up here. This week, coronavirus has been back in the news in a big way. We’ve seen the resurgence of a debate that has been swirling since the start of the pandemic—where did the…

Connected devices have become an expectation: whether at home, in the office, or moving through the city, people rely on smart, interconnected devices and sensors making their lives easier, more productive, and more efficient. Today, technical advances such as lower power chips, better connectivity, and advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are unlocking…

Repairing a human liver using lab-grown cells. Using oral antibiotics to treat cystic fibrosis patients. Producing a single-dose treatment for breast cancer that’s proving highly effective. Predicting cancer with AI. All of this innovation came out of the UK life sciences industry. “It’s really the only industry that can both improve the health of your…

In the United Kingdom, all stars are aligning for the space industry to advance, including an active venture capital community, a government cognizant of space tech’s potential, and close collaboration. Add advancements in emerging technologies, like quantum computing, into the mix, and its potential ignites. Joshua Western, CEO and co-founder of Wales-based space manufacturing startup…

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. Amazon is about to go head to head with SpaceX in a battle for satellite internet dominance  What’s coming: Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are about to lock horns once again. Last month,…

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. New Year’s Eve is my favorite holiday. It’s a time to celebrate, reflect, and look forward to what’s next. Setting goals, drinking champagne—what’s not to like?  Before you say anything, I do know…

Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are about to lock horns once again. Last month, the US Federal Communications Commission approved the final aspects of Project Kuiper, Amazon’s effort to deliver high-speed internet access from space. In May, the company will launch test versions of the Kuiper communications satellites in an attempt to take on SpaceX’s…

Popular AI image-generating systems notoriously tend to amplify harmful biases and stereotypes. But just how big a problem is it? You can now see for yourself using interactive new online tools. (Spoiler alert: it’s big.) The tools, built by researchers at AI startup Hugging Face and Leipzig University and detailed in a non-peer-reviewed paper, allow…

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 just launched Bard, its answer to ChatGPT—and it wants you to make it better Google has launched Bard, the search giant’s answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Bing Chat. Unlike Bing Chat,…

China Report is MIT Technology Review’s newsletter about technology developments in China. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Tuesday. Did you stay up late last week to watch the release of Ernie Bot, the first Chinese rival to ChatGPT? It felt like the most anticipated event in China’s tech world so far this year,…

Google has launched Bard, the search giant’s answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Bing Chat. Unlike Bing Chat, Bard does not look up search results—all the information it returns is generated by the model itself. But it is still designed to help users brainstorm and answer queries. Google wants Bard to become an integral part…

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 UN just handed out an urgent climate to-do list. Here’s what it says. Time is running short to limit global warming to 1.5°C (2.7 °F) above preindustrial levels, but there are feasible…

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. WOW, last week was intense. Several leading AI companies had major product releases. Google said it was giving developers access to its AI language models, and AI startup Anthropic unveiled its AI assistant Claude.…

Large language models are infamous for spewing toxic biases, thanks to the reams of awful human-produced content they get trained on.  But if the models are large enough, and humans have helped train them, then they may be able to self-correct for some of these biases. Remarkably, all we have to do is ask. That’s…

Time is running short to address climate change, but there are feasible and effective solutions on the table, according to a new UN climate report released today.  Despite decades of warnings from scientists, global greenhouse-gas emissions are still climbing, hitting a record high in 2022. If humanity wants to limit the worst effects of climate…

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. Weight-loss injections have taken over the internet. But what does this mean for people IRL? Over the course of the last year, so-called “miracle” weight-loss drugs have blown up across the internet. Although…

This article is from The Technocrat, MIT Technology Review’s weekly tech policy newsletter about power, politics, and Silicon Valley. To receive it in your inbox every Friday, sign up here. There’s been a quiet shift in the abortion fight in the US. Since the reversal of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court last June,…

Michael Edenfield’s doctor calls him the Incredible Shrinking Man.  Between Thanksgiving 2021 and Christmas 2022, the 49-year-old aviation worker shed 129 pounds. Also gone: his sleep apnea machine, his high-blood-pressure medication, and a diuretic pill he had used to alleviate fluid retention in his legs. This is thanks to the only medication Edenfield takes today:…

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company that develops life-transforming medicines, found itself inundated with vast volumes of data during the peak of the covid-19 pandemic. In order to derive actionable information from these disparate data sets, which ranged from clinical trial data to real-time supply chain information, the company needed new ways to join and relate…

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. Chinese tech giant Baidu just released its answer to ChatGPT Yesterday, Robin Li, Baidu’s cofounder and CEO, took the stage in Beijing to showcase the company’s new large language model, Ernie Bot.  He…

This article is from The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, sign up here. Earlier this week, I had a fascinating call with Nita Farahany, a futurist and legal ethicist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Farahany has spent much of her career exploring the…

Editor’s note: This is a translation of a story about how the crime-tracking app Citizen has been giving away free subscriptions to elderly Asians in the Bay Area. Find the English language version here. 本文是与普利策中心的人工智能问责网络合作撰写的。 当外面天黑的时候，约瑟芬·赵（Josephine Zhao）哪怕只是走几个街区就能回到旧金山的家，有时也会多叫一双“眼睛”——字面意义的眼睛。 赵打开手机上的Citizen App，通过一个名为“实时监控”的功能，与该平台的一个客服人员建立联系。而该平台也可以通过网络追踪到赵的GPS位置，客服只要点击另一个按钮，就可以得到打开她手机摄像头的授权。这样该平台就可以“看到我所看到的东西”，赵说。通常来说，她甚至不会和客服人员进行对话，但她知道“这时有人和我一起走”，这会让赵感到安心一些。 这是赵最近采取的最新安全措施之一：她也避免乘坐公共交通工具，以及在城市里走路的时候，会在她的钥匙链上挂着一个长长的尖头装置。这个装置是一个浅粉色的塑料制品，必要的时候会变成一个武器。 但在她看来，Citizen这样一个允许用户报告和跟踪附近犯罪通知的超级本地应用程序是她最好的保护手段之一，这种数据驱动的DIY安全措施能够保护一个长期被忽视的群体。 “我们在教育、公共安全、住房、交通方面上的需求，都没有得到满足和关切。就好像我们不重要一样。”赵说，她目前也是多家教育非政府组织的代课教师和社区联络员，“我们的需求没有得到尊重，我们的需求没有得到满足，人们到处都轻视我们。” “我真的相信Citizen是一个维持社会正义和种族正义的工具。” “我们必须实施一些行动来保护我们的社群，”她补充道。“Citizen是最完美的工具。” 在当地持续发生基于种族的攻击、以及一系列针对亚裔居民的大规模枪击事件之后，许多亚裔和太平洋岛民（AAPI，Asian-American and Pacific Islander）社群的居民们都告诉《麻省理工科技评论》他们欢迎这款应用程序，认为它可以解决反亚仇恨带给他们的焦虑。 对于这些受到严重创伤的人们来说，Citizen成为了让他们获得安心的一种方式。 Citizen的转型 对于这款应用来说，这种积极的反响似乎有些奇怪。毕竟因放大了人们对犯罪的幻想，并帮助白人居民实行种族门禁，它长期以来一直都在遭受着批评的声音。Citizen最初被命名为“治安警员”，因为它有一段曲折的历史：苹果应用商店在该款应用2016年推出后的一周内就将其下架，因为它违反了苹果的《开发者审查指南》，该指南规定应用程序不得鼓励身体伤害。2021年，该公司的首席执行官要求他的员工悬赏3万美元，寻找一名他误认为在洛杉矶纵火的人，这在当时成为了头条新闻。而且该款应用的客户也经常因发表种族主义言论而受到批评。 正是在这种情况下，这款应用现在正在积极地争取像赵这样的用户。从2022年9月开始，通过社区团体如奥克兰华埠商会（Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce）或者旧金山美国华商总会（Chinese…

On Thursday, Robin Li, Baidu’s cofounder and CEO, took the stage in Beijing to showcase the company’s new large language model, Ernie Bot. Accompanied by art created by Baidu’s image-making AI, he showed examples of what the chatbot can do, including solve math questions, write marketing copy, answer questions about Chinese literature, and generate multimedia…

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. These aircraft could change how we fly Some companies think it’s time the aviation industry got a makeover, and many are betting it’ll come in the form of eVTOLs: electric vertical take-off and…

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. This week I fell down a bit of a rabbit hole and developed a mild obsession with flying cars—or the version of them that’s hot right now in Silicon Valley, at least.  Some…

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. GPT-4 is bigger and better than ChatGPT—but OpenAI won’t say why OpenAI has finally unveiled GPT-4, a next-generation large language model that was rumored to be in development for much of last year.…

China Report is MIT Technology Review’s newsletter about technology developments in China. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Tuesday. China’s annual, week-long parliamentary meeting just ended on Monday. Apart from confirming President Xi Jinping for a historic third term and appointing a new batch of other top leaders, the government also approved a restructuring…

Last month, Sheel Mohnot and Amruta Godbole got married. This was no ordinary wedding, though. It was hosted on Decentraland, a virtual platform, and sponsored by Taco Bell.  I tried to attend. As a reporter covering virtual spaces and a fellow Indian-American, I was intrigued. Weddings are very important in Indian culture, and I wanted…

OpenAI has finally unveiled GPT-4, a next-generation large language model that was rumored to be in development for much of last year. The San Francisco-based company’s last surprise hit, ChatGPT, was always going to be a hard act to follow, but OpenAI has made GPT-4 even bigger and better. Yet how much bigger and why…

Thank you for joining us on “The cloud hub: From cloud chaos to clarity.” Christian Butzlaff, chief sustainability solution architect at SAP, and Aryesh Kumar from Infosys, discuss how SAP and Infosys are collaborating on sustainability to help organizations improve their business processes and accelerate their journey toward becoming sustainable enterprises. Click here to continue.