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 to run an LLM on your laptop In the early days of large language models, there was…
This week we heard that eight babies have been born in the UK following an experimental form of IVF that involves DNA from three people. The approach was used to prevent women with genetic mutations from passing mitochondrial diseases to…
Imagine AI so sophisticated it could read a customer’s mind? Or identify and close a cybersecurity loophole weeks before hackers strike? How about a team of AI agents equipped to restructure a global supply chain and circumnavigate looming geopolitical disruption?…
MIT Technology Review’s How To series helps you get things done. Simon Willison has a plan for the end of the world. It’s a USB stick, onto which he has loaded a couple of his favorite open-weight LLMs—models that have…
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. Researchers announce babies born from a trial of three-person IVF Eight babies have been born in the UK…
I’ll admit that I’ve rarely hesitated to point an accusing finger at air-conditioning. I’ve outlined in many stories and newsletters that AC is a significant contributor to global electricity demand, and it’s only going to suck up more power as…
Eight babies have been born in the UK thanks to a technology that uses DNA from three people: the two biological parents plus a third person who supplies healthy mitochondrial DNA. The babies were born to mothers who carry genes…
No one knows exactly how AI will transform our communities, workplaces, and society as a whole. Because it’s hard to predict the impact AI will have on jobs, many workers and local governments are left trying to read the tea…
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 generative video model Veo 3 has a subtitles problem As soon as Google launched its latest video-generating…
In June 2023, technology leaders and IT services executives had a lightning bolt headed their way when McKinsey published the “The economic potential of generative AI: The next productivity frontier” report. It echoed a moment from the 2010s when Amazon…
Adaptive production is more than a technological upgrade: it is a paradigm shift. This new frontier enables the integration of cutting-edge technologies to create an increasingly autonomous environment, where interconnected manufacturing plants go beyond the limits of traditional automation. Artificial…
As soon as Google launched its latest video-generating AI model at the end of May, creatives rushed to put it through its paces. Released just months after its predecessor, Veo 3 allows users to generate sounds and dialogue for the…
When Darren Riley moved to Detroit seven years ago, he didn’t expect the city’s air to change his life—literally. Developing asthma as an adult opened his eyes to a much larger problem: the invisible but pervasive impact of air pollution…
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. AI text-to-speech programs could one day “unlearn” how to imitate certain people The news: A new technique known…
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. California is set to become the first US state to manage power outages with AI California’s statewide power…
California’s statewide power grid operator is poised to become the first in North America to deploy artificial intelligence to manage outages, MIT Technology Review has learned. “We wanted to modernize our grid operations. This fits in perfectly with that,” says…
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. Cybersecurity’s global alarm system is breaking down Every day, billions of people trust digital systems to run everything…
Every day, billions of people trust digital systems to run everything from communication to commerce to critical infrastructure. But the global early warning system that alerts security teams to dangerous software flaws is showing critical gaps in coverage—and most users…
This week I’m sending congratulations to two sets of parents in South Africa. Babies Milayah and Rossouw arrived a few weeks ago. All babies are special, but these two set a new precedent. They’re the first to be born following…
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. This tool strips away anti-AI protections from digital art The news: A new technique called LightShed will make…
China is the dominant force in next-generation energy technologies today. It’s pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into putting renewable sources like wind and solar on its grid, manufacturing millions of electric vehicles, and building out capacity for energy storage,…
A new technique called LightShed will make it harder for artists to use existing protective tools to stop their work from being ingested for AI training. It’s the next step in a cat-and-mouse game—across technology, law, and culture—that has been…
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 OpenAI’s empire: A conversation with Karen Hao In a wide-ranging Roundtables conversation for MIT Technology Review subscribers,…
In a wide-ranging Roundtables conversation for MIT Technology Review subscribers, AI journalist and author Karen Hao spoke about her new book, Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI. She talked with executive editor Niall Firth about how…
The “Big, Beautiful Bill” that President Donald Trump signed into law on July 4 was chock full of controversial policies—Medicaid work requirements, increased funding for ICE, and an end to tax credits for clean energy and vehicles, to name just…
Michigan may be best known as the birthplace of the American auto industry, but its innovation legacy runs far deeper, and its future is poised to be even broader. From creating the world’s largest airport factory during World War II…
From a cluster of call centers in Canada, a criminal network defrauded elderly victims in the US out of $21 million in total between 2021 and 2024. The fraudsters used voice over internet protocol technology to dupe victims into believing the…
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 most dangerous asteroid hunt ever If you were told that the odds of something were 3.1%,…
Fusion energy holds the potential to shift a geopolitical landscape that is currently configured around fossil fuels. Harnessing fusion will deliver the energy resilience, security, and abundance needed for all modern industrial and service sectors. But these benefits will be…
Today’s AI landscape is defined by the ways in which neural networks are unlike human brains. A toddler learns how to communicate effectively with only a thousand calories a day and regular conversation; meanwhile, tech companies are reopening nuclear power…
When a historic UK-based retailer set out to modernize its IT environment, it was wrestling with systems that had grown organically for more than 175 years. Prior digital transformation efforts had resulted in a patchwork of hundreds of integration flows…
Digital transformation has long been a boardroom buzzword—shorthand for ambitious, often abstract visions of modernization. But today, digital technologies are no longer simply concepts in glossy consultancy decks and on corporate campuses; they’re also being embedded directly into factory floors,…
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 latest threat from the rise of Chinese manufacturing In 2013, a trio of academics showed convincing evidence…
The findings a decade ago were, well, shocking. Mainstream economists had long argued that free trade was overall a good thing; though there might be some winners and losers, it would generally bring lower prices and widespread prosperity. Then, in…
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 India’s scramble for AI independence Despite its status as a global tech hub, India lags far behind…
In Bengaluru, India, Adithya Kolavi felt a mix of excitement and validation as he watched DeepSeek unleash its disruptive language model on the world earlier this year. The Chinese technology rivaled the best of the West in terms of benchmarks,…
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. Don’t let hype about AI agents get ahead of reality —Yoav Shoham is a professor emeritus at Stanford…
We got two big pieces of energy news from Google this week. The company announced that it’s signed an agreement to purchase electricity from a fusion company’s forthcoming first power plant. Google also released its latest environmental report, which shows…
Google’s recent unveiling of what it calls a “new class of agentic experiences” feels like a turning point. At its I/O 2025 event in May, for example, the company showed off a digital assistant that didn’t just answer questions; it…
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 generative AI could help make construction sites safer More than 1,000 construction workers die on the job…
Last winter, during the construction of an affordable housing project on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, a 32-year-old worker named Jose Luis Collaguazo Crespo slipped off a ladder on the second floor and plunged to his death in the basement. He was…
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. People are using AI to ‘sit’ with them while they trip on psychedelics A growing number of people…
The internet infrastructure company Cloudflare announced today that it will now default to blocking AI bots from visiting websites it hosts. Cloudflare will also give clients the ability to manually allow or ban these AI bots on a case-by-case basis,…
Peter sat alone in his bedroom as the first waves of euphoria coursed through his body like an electrical current. He was in darkness, save for the soft blue light of the screen glowing from his lap. Then he started…
Last week, the technology companies Anthropic and Meta each won landmark victories in two separate court cases that examined whether or not the firms had violated copyright when they trained their large language models on copyrighted books without permission. The…
Recorded on June 30, 2025 AI journalist Karen Hao’s book, Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI, tells the story of OpenAI’s rise to power and its far-reaching impact all over the world. Hear from Karen Hao,…
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. Meet Jim O’Neill, the longevity enthusiast who is now RFK Jr.’s right-hand man When Jim O’Neill was nominated…
When Jim O’Neill was nominated to be the second in command at the US Department of Health and Human Services, Dylan Livingston was excited. As founder and CEO of the lobbying group Alliance for Longevity Initiatives (A4LI), Livingston is a…
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. This battery recycling company is now cleaning up AI data centers In a sandy industrial lot outside Reno,…
Weight-loss drugs are this decade’s blockbuster medicines. Drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro help people with diabetes get their blood sugar under control and help overweight and obese people reach a healthier weight. And they’re fast becoming a trendy must-have…
In a sandy industrial lot outside Reno, Nevada, rows of battery packs that once propelled electric vehicles are now powering a small AI data center. Redwood Materials, one of the US’s largest battery recycling companies, showed off this array of…
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 new AI will help researchers understand how our genes work When scientists first sequenced the human genome…
It’s crunch time for the grid this week. As I’m writing this newsletter, it’s 100 °F (nearly 38 °C) here in New Jersey, and I’m huddled in the smallest room in my apartment with the shades drawn and a single…
When scientists first sequenced the human genome in 2003, they revealed the full set of DNA instructions that make a person. But we still didn’t know what all those 3 billion genetic letters actually do. Now Google’s DeepMind division says…
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 Power issue Energy is power. Those who can produce it, especially lots of it, get to…
The US is on the brink of enacting rules for digital assets, with growing bipartisan momentum to modernize our financial system. But amid all the talk about innovation and global competitiveness, one issue has been glaringly absent: financial privacy. As…
Separating AI reality from hyped-up fiction isn’t always easy. That’s why we’ve created the AI Hype Index—a simple, at-a-glance summary of everything you need to know about the state of the industry. AI agents might be the toast of the…
The last good Instagram account It’s a truth universally acknowledged that social media is a Bad Vibe. Thankfully, there is still one Instagram account worth following that’s just as incisive, funny, and scathing today as when it was founded back…
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. Namibia wants to build the world’s first hydrogen economy Factories have used fossil fuels to process iron ore…
Over six years and across four continents, the London-based documentary photographer Zed Nelson has examined how humans have immersed themselves in increasingly simulated environments to mask their destructive divorce from the natural world. Featuring everything from theme parks and zoos…
On an afternoon in March in the middle of the world’s oldest desert, Johannes Michels looks out at an array of solar panels, the size of 40 football fields, that stretches toward a ridge of jagged peaks between the ochre-colored…
As a tech reporter I often get asked questions like “Is DeepSeek actually better than ChatGPT?” or “Is the Anthropic model any good?” If I don’t feel like turning it into an hour-long seminar, I’ll usually give the diplomatic answer:…
When testing an AI model, it’s hard to tell if it is reasoning or just regurgitating answers from its training data. Xbench, a new benchmark developed by the Chinese venture capital firm HSG, or Hongshan Capital Group, might help to…
Around the world, countries are facing the challenges of aging populations, growing rates of chronic disease, and workforce shortages, leading to a growing burden on health care systems. From diagnosis to treatment, AI and other digital solutions can enhance the…
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. See the stunning first images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory The first spectacular images taken by the…
Privacy only matters to those with something to hide. So goes one of the more inane and disingenuous justifications for mass government and corporate surveillance. There are others, of course, but the “nothing to hide” argument remains a popular way…
AI seems like the next big thing in education, but it will not transform classrooms in the ways many expect
VEO 3 from Google takes making short clips with AI to the next level in ways that are sure to impact schools.
The first spectacular images taken by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory have been released for the world to peruse: a panoply of iridescent galaxies and shimmering nebulas. “This is the dawn of the Rubin Observatory,” says Meg Schwamb, a planetary…
A $10 million federal grant will fund the Using Generative Artificial Intelligence for Reading R&D Center (U-GAIN Reading)
Advanced AI can transform biology and medicine—but also raises biosecurity risks. We’re proactively assessing capabilities and implementing safeguards to prevent misuse.
We study how training on incorrect responses can cause broader misalignment in language models and identify an internal feature driving this behavior—one that can be reversed with minimal fine-tuning.
How to equip teachers and staff with the necessary skills and confidence to integrate AI into their classrooms
The Arc AI search tool is an impressive alternative to traditional search engines, with lots of potential for educators.
We’re launching OpenAI for Government, a new initiative focused on bringing our most advanced AI tools to public servants across the United States. We’re supporting the U.S. government’s efforts in adopting best-in-class technology and deploying these tools in service of…
OpenAI and Mattel are partnering to integrate AI into iconic brands such as Barbie and Hot Wheels, aiming to enhance creative development, streamline workflows, and create new ways for fans to engage.
OpenAI introduces its Outbound Coordinated Disclosure Policy to guide how it responsibly reports vulnerabilities in third-party software—emphasizing integrity, collaboration, and proactive security at scale.
Algorithms & Theory
Climate & Sustainability
Generative AI
Algorithms & Theory
Climate & Sustainability
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