February 9, 2025

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman admits that AI’s benefits may not be widely distributed

In a new essay on his personal blog, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company is open to a “compute budget,” among other “strange-sounding” ideas, to “enable everyone on Earth to use a lot of AI” and ensure the benefits of the technology are widely distributed. “The historical impact of technological progress suggests that most […]

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Technology

Roblox acquires voice moderation startup Speechly

September 20, 2023
Two years after announcing voice chat was coming to Roblox, the gaming company has acquired a voice tech startup, Speechly, offering voice chat moderation, real-time transcription, and and Voice API that lets companies add AI voice technology and voice interfaces to their products and experiences. The Helsinki, Finland-based startup Speechly was founded in 2016 with […]

The Download: AI movie soundtracks, and DeepMind’s disease prediction tool

September 20, 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. A Disney director tried—and failed—to use an AI Hans Zimmer to create a soundtrack When Gareth Edwards, the director of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, was thinking about the soundtrack for his…

The deepfake avatars who want to sell you everything

September 20, 2023
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 acquires European battery recycler in expansion push

September 19, 2023
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 […]

DeepMind is using AI to pinpoint the causes of genetic disease

September 19, 2023
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…

A Disney director tried—and failed—to use an AI Hans Zimmer to create a soundtrack

September 19, 2023
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…

The Download: AI to cure diseases, and China’s deepfake influencers

September 19, 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. 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…

How AI can help us understand how cells work—and help cure diseases

September 19, 2023
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…