Technology

How the US and its allies can rebuild economic security

July 30, 2024
A country’s economic security—its ability to generate both national security and economic prosperity—is grounded in it having significant technological capabilities that outpace those of its adversaries and complement those of its allies. Though this is a principle well known throughout history, the move over the last few decades toward globalization and offshoring of technologically advanced…

How machines that can solve complex math problems might usher in more powerful AI

July 30, 2024
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. It’s been another big week in AI. Meta updated its powerful new Llama model, which it’s handing out for free, and OpenAI said it is going to trial an AI-powered online…

The Download: the future of CRISPR babies, and investing in climate tech

July 29, 2024
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. Controversial CRISPR scientist promises “no more gene-edited babies” until society comes around He Jiankui, the Chinese biophysicist whose controversial 2018 experiment led to the birth of three gene-edited children, says he’s returned to…

From Meta CTO to climate tech investor: Mike Schroepfer on his big pivot

July 29, 2024
As the pandemic locked down cities in early 2020, Mike Schroepfer, then the chief technology officer of Meta, found himself with more free time than he’d ever had in his career.  In quiet moments that would have been filled with work travel, social events, or his children’s school activities, he reflected on how well humanity…

The Download: AI’s math solutions, and brewing beer with sunlight

July 26, 2024
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 DeepMind’s new AI systems can now solve complex math problems AI models can easily generate essays and other types of text. However, they’re nowhere near as good at solving math problems, which…

How our genome is like a generative AI model

July 26, 2024
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. What does the genome do? You might have heard that it is a blueprint for an organism. Or that it’s a bit like a recipe. But building an…

Roundtables: CRISPR Babies—Six years later

July 25, 2024
Recorded on July 25, 2024 CRISPR Babies: Six years later Speakers: He Jiankui, CRISPR Pioneer, Antonio Regalado, senior editor for biomedicine, and Mat Honan, editor in chief Gene editing can correct or improve the DNA of human embryos, essentially opening the door to “technological evolution” of our species. But in 2018, a premature attempt to…

Google DeepMind’s AI systems can now solve complex math problems

July 25, 2024
AI models can easily generate essays and other types of text. However, they’re nowhere near as good at solving math problems, which tend to involve logical reasoning—something that’s beyond the capabilities of most current AI systems. But that may finally be changing. Google DeepMind says it has trained two specialized AI systems to solve complex…