February 7, 2025

These documents are influencing the DOGE-sphere’s agenda

Reports from the US Government Accountability Office on improper federal payments in recent years are circulating on X and elsewhere online, and they seem to be a big influence on Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency and its supporters as the group pursues cost-cutting measures across the federal government.  The payment reports have been…

Technology

The Download: junk in space, and what’s next for mRNA vaccines

October 6, 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. Why the first-ever space junk fine is such a big deal We’ve just taken a major step toward cleaning up space junk. Earlier this week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the US…

mRNA vaccines just won a Nobel Prize. Now they’re ready for the next act.

October 6, 2023
Hello again from The Checkup!  This week the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine honored two scientists whose research into messenger RNA (mRNA) technology paved the way for much-lauded covid-19 vaccines. Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman figured out how to tweak mRNA to prevent it from setting off an inflammatory reaction. Their discovery, first published…

Why the first-ever space junk fine is such a big deal

October 5, 2023
We’ve just taken a major step toward cleaning up space junk. On Monday, October 2, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the US issued its first fine for space debris, ordering the US TV provider Dish to pay $150,000 for failing to move one of its satellites into a safe orbit.  “It is definitely a…

Driving companywide efficiencies with AI

October 5, 2023
Autonomous shopping carts that follow grocery store customers and robots that pick ripe cucumbers faster than humans may grab headlines, but the most compelling applications of AI and ML technology are behind the scenes. Increasingly, organizations are finding substantial efficiency gains by applying AI- and ML-powered tools to back-office procedures such as document processing, data…

Likewise debuts Pix, an AI chatbot for entertainment recommendations

October 5, 2023
Likewise, the company behind an app that can recommend your next TV binge, movie to watch, podcast to stream, or book to read, is out today with its own entertainment-focused AI companion, Pix. Built using a combination of Likewise’s own customer data and technology from partner OpenAI, Pix can make entertainment recommendations and answer other […]

Laying the foundation for data- and AI-led growth

October 5, 2023
Enterprise adoption of AI is ready to shift into higher gear. The capabilities of generative AI have captured management attention across the organization, and technology executives are moving quickly to deploy or experiment with it. Many organizations intend to increase their spending on the wider family of AI capabilities and the data infrastructure that supports…

The Download: the 15 ClimateTech Companies to Watch

October 5, 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. The 15 ClimateTech Companies to Watch It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and terrified in the face of an ever-worsening climate crisis. But the glimmer of good news is that, for the most part,…

The businesses changing climate technology

October 5, 2023
This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. Awards season is due for a refresh. While you wait to hear who got the nod for the Oscars, Golden Globes, and Emmys, check out MIT Technology Review’s 15 Climate Tech Companies…