Technology

The Download: AI’s energy future

September 10, 2025
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. Video: AI and our energy future In May, MIT Technology Review published an unprecedented and comprehensive look at how much energy the AI industry uses—down to a single query. Our reporters and editors…

Adapting to new threats with proactive risk management

September 9, 2025
In July 2024, a botched update to the software defenses managed by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike caused more than 8 million Windows systems to fail. From hospitals to manufacturers, stock markets to retail stores, the outage caused parts of the global economy to grind to a halt. Payment systems were disrupted, broadcasters went off the air,…

The Download: meet our AI innovators, and what happens when therapists use AI covertly

September 9, 2025
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 the AI honorees on our 35 Innovators Under 35 list for 2025 Each year, we select 35 outstanding individuals under the age of 35 who are using technology to tackle tough problems…

Help! My therapist is secretly using ChatGPT

September 9, 2025
In Silicon Valley’s imagined future, AI models are so empathetic that we’ll use them as therapists. They’ll provide mental-health care for millions, unimpeded by the pesky requirements for human counselors, like the need for graduate degrees, malpractice insurance, and sleep. Down here on Earth, something very different has been happening.  Last week, we published a…

AI is changing the grid. Could it help more than it harms?

September 9, 2025
The rising popularity of AI is driving an increase in electricity demand so significant it has the potential to reshape our grid. Energy consumption by data centers has gone up by 80% from 2020 to 2025 and is likely to keep growing. Electricity prices are already rising, especially in places where data centers are most…

Three big things we still don’t know about AI’s energy burden

September 9, 2025
Earlier this year, when my colleague Casey Crownhart and I spent six months researching the climate and energy burden of AI, we came to see one number in particular as our white whale: how much energy the leading AI models, like ChatGPT or Gemini, use up when generating a single response.  This fundamental number remained…

The Download: introducing our 35 Innovators Under 35 list for 2025

September 8, 2025
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: our 35 Innovators Under 35 list for 2025 The world is full of extraordinary young people brimming with ideas for how to crack tough problems. Every year, we recognize 35 such individuals…

How Trump’s policies are affecting early-career scientists—in their own words

September 8, 2025
Every year MIT Technology Review celebrates accomplished young scientists, entrepreneurs, and inventors from around the world in our Innovators Under 35 list. We’ve just published the 2025 edition. This year, though, the context is pointedly different: The US scientific community finds itself in an unprecedented position, with the very foundation of its work under attack. …

How Trump’s policies are affecting early-career scientists—in their own words

September 8, 2025
Every year MIT Technology Review celebrates accomplished young scientists, entrepreneurs, and inventors from around the world in our Innovators Under 35 list. We’ve just published the 2025 edition. This year, though, the context is pointedly different: The US scientific community finds itself in an unprecedented position, with the very foundation of its work under attack. …