Technology

Emissions hit a record high in 2023. Blame hydropower.

March 7, 2024
This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. Hydropower is a staple of clean energy—the modern version has been around for over a century, and it’s one of the world’s largest sources of renewable electricity. But last year, weather conditions…

Satellite servicing tech startup, led by former head of Ukraine’s space agency, lands $4M

March 6, 2024

Kurs Orbital, a startup founded by Ukrainian space industry veterans, has closed a new tranche of funding to accelerate the commercialization of its satellite servicing technology. The two-year-old company aims to unlock a new era for human activities in space by enabling capabilities like satellite relocation and inspection, de-orbiting and space debris removal. Kurs does […]

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k-ID launches a solution that helps game developers comply with ever-changing child safety regulations

March 6, 2024

Making a video game successful is already hard. Doing so while complying with the growing number of child safety laws and regulations around the world is an almost insurmountable task. A new technology company called k-ID aims to make this process much easier for game makers, by offering a framework that protects publishers and developers […]

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The Download: AI comics, and US tensions with China over EVs

March 6, 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. I used generative AI to turn my story into a comic—and you can too —Will Douglas Heaven Thirteen years ago, as an assignment for a journalism class, I wrote a stupid short story…

Chinese EVs have entered center stage in US-China tensions

March 6, 2024
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. So far, electric vehicles have mostly been discussed in the US through a scientific, economic, or environmental lens. But all of a sudden, they have become highly political.  Last Thursday, the Biden…

Accenture to acquire Udacity to build a learning platform focused on AI

March 5, 2024

Accenture announced today that it would acquire the learning platform Udacity as part of an effort to build a learning platform focused on the growing interest in AI. While the company didn’t specify how much it paid for Udacity, it also announced a $1 billion investment in building a technology learning platform it’s calling LearnVantage. […]

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Apple revises its DMA rules after pressure, but keeps the Core Technology Fee intact

March 5, 2024

No, Apple’s new and controversial “Core Technology Fee” isn’t going away for EU app developers who opt into the iPhone maker’s new business terms designed to comply with the region’s Digital Markets Act. However, Apple is today announcing a handful of smaller concessions driven by feedback from its app developer community, it says. Notably, the […]

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I used generative AI to turn my story into a comic—and you can too

March 5, 2024
Thirteen years ago, as an assignment for a journalism class, I wrote a stupid short story about a man who eats luxury cat food. This morning, I sat and watched as a generative AI platform called Lore Machine brought my weird words to life. I fed my story into a text box and got this…