Technology

OpenAI’s new defense contract completes its military pivot

December 4, 2024
At the start of 2024, OpenAI’s rules for how armed forces might use its technology were unambiguous.  The company prohibited anyone from using its models for “weapons development” or “military and warfare.” That changed on January 10, when The Intercept reported that OpenAI had softened those restrictions, forbidding anyone from using the technology to “harm…

Would you eat dried microbes? This company hopes so.

December 4, 2024
A company best known for sucking up industrial waste gases is turning its attention to food. LanzaTech, a rising star in the fuel and chemical industries, is joining a growing group of businesses producing microbe-based food as an alternative to plant and animal products. Using microbes to make food is hardly new—beer, yogurt, cheese, and…

Google DeepMind’s new AI model is the best yet at weather forecasting

December 4, 2024
Google DeepMind has unveiled an AI model that’s better at predicting the weather than the current best systems. The new model, dubbed GenCast, is published in Nature today. This is the second AI weather model that Google has launched in just the past few months. In July, it published details of NeuralGCM, a model that…

The Download: the Russia-Ukraine war’s effect on tech, and shaking up AI search

December 4, 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. How the Ukraine-Russia war is reshaping the tech sector in Eastern Europe It might have been hard a few years ago to imagine soldiers heading to battle on oversized toys made by a…

How the Ukraine-Russia war is reshaping the tech sector in Eastern Europe

December 4, 2024
At first glance, the Mosphera scooter may look normal—just comically oversized. It’s like the monster truck of scooters, with a footplate seven inches off the ground that’s wide enough to stand on with your feet slightly apart—which you have to do to keep your balance, because when you flip the accelerator with a thumb, it…

5 Powerful Ways to Streamline Your Work Processes with AI

December 3, 2024
The correct way to combine AI, automation, and human talent in the modern world by adopting a hybrid model. Learn the key steps businesses can take to successfully streamline operations and enhance performance using advanced technology.

The startup trying to turn the web into a database

December 3, 2024
A startup called Exa is pitching a new spin on generative search. It uses the tech behind large language models to return lists of results that it claims are more on point than those from its rivals, including Google and OpenAI. The aim is to turn the internet’s vast and chaotic tangle of web pages…

The Download: nominate an Innovator Under 35, and AI policy

December 3, 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. Nominate someone to our 2025 list of Innovators Under 35 Every year, MIT Technology Review recognizes 35 young innovators who are doing pioneering work across a range of technical fields including biotechnology, materials…

Nominate someone to our 2025 list of Innovators Under 35

December 3, 2024
Every year, MIT Technology Review recognizes 35 young innovators who are doing pioneering work across a range of technical fields including biotechnology, materials science, artificial intelligence, computing, and more.  We’re now taking nominations for our 2025 list and you can submit one here. The process takes just a few minutes. Nominations will close at 11:59…

How US AI policy might change under Trump

December 3, 2024
This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get it in your inbox first, sign up here. President Biden first witnessed the capabilities of ChatGPT in 2022 during a demo from Arati Prabhakar, the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, in the oval office. That demo set…