Technology

This story first appeared in China Report, MIT Technology Review’s newsletter about technology developments in China. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Tuesday. Writing about China, a question I always get is: What technology is ubiquitous there but hasn’t caught on in the West? One of my go-to answers is livestream e-commerce.  If you…

Redwood Materials said Tuesday it acquired lithium-ion battery recycler Redux Recycling, a purchase meant to accelerate U.S. company’s expansion into Europe. This is Redwood’s second acquisition since former Tesla co-founder and CTO JB Straubel founded the battery materials and recycling startup in 2017. Last year, Redwood acquired a small UK recycling technology company. The company […]

Google DeepMind says it’s trained an artificial intelligence that can predict which DNA variations in our genomes are likely to cause disease—predictions that could speed diagnosis of rare disorders and possibly yield clues for drug development. DeepMind, founded in London and acquired by Google 10 years ago, is known for artificial-intelligence programs that play video…

Amazon today introduced a new version of its Just Walk Out retail technology that allows customers to skip the cashier lines when they make a purchase by having their payment card automatically charged. The prior system leveraged a combination of ceiling-mounted cameras, shelf sensors, and computer vision techniques to allow customers to shop and then […]

Hans Zimmer, 1; AI, 0.  When Gareth Edwards, the director of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, was thinking about the soundtrack for his upcoming movie about artificial intelligence, The Creator, he decided to try composing it with AI—and got “pretty damn good” results.  “The cheeky part of me thought it’d be even better if…

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. How AI can help us understand how cells work—and help cure diseases Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg are cofounders and co-CEOs of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Cells are key to understanding disease—yet so…

As the smallest living units, cells are key to understanding disease—and yet so much about them remains unknown. We do not know, for example, how billions of biomolecules—like DNA, proteins, and lipids—come together to act as one cell. Nor do we know how our many types of cells interact within our bodies. We have limited…

Pryon, a startup developing an AI-powered platform to look for insights in — and surface answers from — enterprise knowledge bases, today announced that it raised $100 million in a funding round led by Thomas Tull’s U.S. Innovative Technology Fund. Pryon’s founder, Igor Jablokov, said that the new cash will be put put toward supporting […]

Babbel, the popular subscription-based language learning service, today announced that it has acquired Toucan, the well-funded language learning browser extension. Toucan, it turns out, wound down as a company earlier this year, though its service has remained online. None of Toucan’s co-founders or employees will join Babbel, which is only buying Toucan’s technology. Babbel will […]

So smart! So talented! This week I’m pleased to introduce you to a new crop of bright minds working on some of the most challenging problems in AI and beyond. You can read MIT Technology Review’s full list of 35 Innovators Under 35 here.  We’ve previously highlighted some of the most promising people in tech before…