Technology

The first-ever mission to pull a dead rocket out of space has just begun

February 27, 2024
More than 9,000 metric tons of human-made metal and machinery are orbiting Earth, including satellites, shrapnel, and the International Space Station. But a significant bulk of that mass comes from one source: the nearly a thousand dead rockets that have been discarded in space since the space age began. Now, for the first time, a…

The Download: tiny TikTok-style soap operas, and how algorithms change us

February 27, 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. China’s next cultural export could be TikTok-style short soap operas Until last year, Ty Coker, a 28-year-old voice actor who lives in Missouri, mostly voiced video games and animations. But in December, they…

Algorithms are everywhere

February 27, 2024
Like a lot of Netflix subscribers, I find that my personal feed tends to be hit or miss. Usually more miss. The movies and shows the algorithms recommend often seem less predicated on my viewing history and ratings, and more geared toward promoting whatever’s newly available. Still, when a superhero movie starring one of the…

Bans on deepfakes take us only so far—here’s what we really need

February 27, 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. There has been some really encouraging news in the fight against deepfakes. A couple of weeks ago the US Federal Trade Commission announced it is finalizing rules banning the use of deepfakes that impersonate…

How Wi-Fi sensing became usable tech

February 27, 2024
Over a decade ago, Neal Patwari lay in a hospital bed, carefully timing his breathing. Around him, 20 wireless transceivers stood sentry. As Patwari’s chest rose and fell, their electromagnetic waves rippled around him. Patwari, now a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, had just demonstrated that those ripples could reveal his breathing patterns. …

China’s next cultural export could be TikTok-style short soap operas

February 27, 2024
Until last year, Ty Coker, a 28-year-old voice actor who lives in Missouri, mostly voiced video games and animations. But in December, they got a casting call for their first shot at live-action content: a Chinese series called Adored by the CEO, which was being remade for an American audience. Coker was hired to dub…

Artificial Intelligence’s Impact on Stock Market

February 26, 2024
Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a significant force behind the impressive gains witnessed in the stock market over the past year. This revolutionary technology has made its mark across…

Conversational AI revolutionizes the customer experience landscape

February 26, 2024
In the ever-evolving landscape of customer experiences, AI has become a beacon guiding businesses toward seamless interactions. While AI has been transforming businesses long before the latest wave of viral chatbots, the emergence of generative AI and large language models represents a paradigm shift in how enterprises engage with customers and manage internal workflows. “We…

The Download: Trump’s potential climate impact, and the end of cheap helium

February 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. Trump wants to unravel Biden’s landmark climate law. Here is what’s most at risk. President Joe Biden’s crowning legislative achievement was enacting the Inflation Reduction Act, easily the nation’s largest investment into addressing…

Wikimedia’s CTO: In the age of AI, human contributors still matter

February 26, 2024
Selena Deckelmann has never been afraid of people on the internet. With a TV repairman and CB radio enthusiast for a grandfather and a pipe fitter for a stepdad, Deckelmann grew up solving problems by talking and tinkering. So when she found her way to Linux, one of the earliest open-source operating systems, as a…