Technology

The Download: what we learned from COP28, and an advance for household robots

December 14, 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 two words that pushed international climate talks into overtime The annual UN climate negotiations at COP28 in Dubai have officially come to a close. Delegates scrambled to get a deal together in…

This new system can teach a robot a simple household task within 20 minutes

December 14, 2023
A new system that teaches robots a domestic task in around 20 minutes could help the field of robotics overcome one of its biggest challenges: a lack of training data.  The open-source system, called Dobb-E, was trained using data collected from real homes. It can help to teach a robot how to open an air…

The two words that pushed international climate talks into overtime

December 14, 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. The annual UN climate negotiations at COP28 in Dubai have officially come to a close. Delegates scrambled to get a deal together in the early morning hours, and the meetings ended a…

How to Create Generational Wealth With AI

December 14, 2023
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the world, and it’s no secret that those who master and harness this technology can create immense wealth for themselves and their clients. The rapid…

Vertex will pay tens of millions to license a controversial CRISPR patent

December 13, 2023
Vertex Pharmaceuticals has agreed to buy rights to use a dominant CRISPR patent owned by the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, avoiding a potential lawsuit over its new gene-editing treatment for sickle-cell disease. The agreement allows Vertex to start selling its treatment, approved last Friday, without fear of patent infringement claims. The one-time treatment…

The Download: carbon removal concerns, and Yahoo’s China controversy 

December 13, 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. Two former Department of Energy staffers warn we’re doing carbon removal all wrong The carbon removal industry is just starting to take off, but some experts are warning that it’s already headed in…

Yahoo’s decades-long China controversy and the responsibility of tech companies

December 13, 2023
This story first appeared in China Report, MIT Technology Review’s newsletter about technology in China. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Tuesday. It’s a perennial debate: whether American tech companies are contributing to government control of the internet in China. But long before Apple ceded control of local user data to the state or…

Hyperplane wants to bring AI to banks

December 13, 2023

Hyperplane, a San Francisco-based startup that is building foundation models to help banks predict customer behavior, is coming out of stealth today by announcing a $6 million funding round led by former Stripe exec Lachy Groom, who was joined by SV Angel, Clocktower Technology Ventures, Liquid2 Ventures, Soma Capital, Latitud, Atman Capital, Crestone VC and […]

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Two former Department of Energy staffers warn we’re doing carbon removal all wrong

December 13, 2023
The carbon removal industry is just starting to take off, but some experts are warning that it’s already headed in the wrong direction. Two former staffers of the US agency responsible for advancing the technology argue that the profit-driven industry’s focus on cleaning up corporate emissions will come at the expense of helping to pull…