Technology

Why Meta is getting sued over its beauty filters

October 30, 2023
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. Dozens of states sued Meta on October 24, claiming that the company knowingly harms young users. The case is a pretty big deal and will almost certainly have…

We need to focus on the AI harms that already exist

October 30, 2023
This is an excerpt from Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines by Joy Buolamwini, published on October 31 by Random House. It has been lightly edited.  The term “x-risk” is used as a shorthand for the hypothetical existential risk posed by AI. While my research supports the…

Joy Buolamwini: “We’re giving AI companies a free pass”

October 29, 2023
Joy Buolamwini, the renowned AI researcher and activist, appears on the Zoom screen from home in Boston, wearing her signature thick-rimmed glasses.  As an MIT grad, she seems genuinely interested in seeing old covers of MIT Technology Review that hang in our London office. An edition of the magazine from 1961 asks: “Will your son…

The Download: OpenAI’s top scientist on AGI, and gene therapy to restore hearing

October 27, 2023
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. Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s chief scientist, on his hopes and fears for the future of AI Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s cofounder and chief scientist, is no longer focusing on building the next generation of his…

Some deaf children in China can hear after gene treatment

October 27, 2023
Here’s the easy game Li Xincheng has been playing at home. Her mother says a few words. Then the six-year-old, nicknamed Yiyi, repeats what she heard. “Clouds, one by one, blossomed in the mountains,” says her mother, Qin Lixue, while covering her mouth so Yiyi can’t read her lips. “Clouds, one, one, blossomed in big…

Agora enables brands to host live shopping events and auctions

October 26, 2023

Agora, the company that develops “real-time engagement” APIs, is making its livestream shopping technology widely available to help more brands build live commerce experiences, including shoppable shows, live auctions, personal shopper livestreams, and more. The solution has been in beta since 2022. With Agora’s live shopping API, any company can embed interactive livestreams into their […]

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The Download: gene-editing HIV, and how to destroy PFAS

October 26, 2023
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. Three people were gene-edited in an effort to cure their HIV. The result is unknown. The news: The gene-editing technology CRISPR has been used to change the genes of human babies, to modify…