Technology

Coming soon: Our 2025 list of Climate Tech Companies to Watch

September 29, 2025
The need to cut emissions and adapt to our warming world is growing more urgent. This year, we’ve seen temperatures reach record highs, as they have nearly every year for the last decade. Climate-fueled natural disasters are affecting communities around the world, costing billions of dollars.  That’s why, for the past two years, MIT Technology…

US investigators are using AI to detect child abuse images made by AI

September 26, 2025
Generative AI has enabled the production of child sexual abuse images to skyrocket. Now the leading investigator of child exploitation in the US is experimenting with using AI to distinguish AI-generated images from material depicting real victims, according to a new government filing. The Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber Crimes Center, which investigates child exploitation…

The Download: shoplifter-chasing drones, and Trump’s TikTok deal

September 26, 2025
Shoplifters in the US could soon be chased down by drones The news: Flock Safety, whose drones were once reserved for police departments, is now offering them for private-sector security, the company has announced. Potential customers include businesses trying to curb shoplifting.  How it works: If the security team at a store sees shoplifters leave,…

Shoplifters could soon be chased down by drones

September 25, 2025
Flock Safety, whose drones were once reserved for police departments, is now offering them for private-sector security, the company announced today, with potential customers including including businesses intent on curbing shoplifting.  Companies in the US can now place Flock’s drone docking stations on their premises. If the company has a waiver from the Federal Aviation…

Fusion power plants don’t exist yet, but they’re making money anyway

September 25, 2025
This week, Commonwealth Fusion Systems announced it has another customer for its first commercial fusion power plant, in Virginia. Eni, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, signed a billion-dollar deal to buy electricity from the facility. One small detail? That reactor doesn’t exist yet. Neither does the smaller reactor Commonwealth is building…

How AI and Wikipedia have sent vulnerable languages into a doom spiral

September 25, 2025
When Kenneth Wehr started managing the Greenlandic-language version of Wikipedia four years ago, his first act was to delete almost everything. It had to go, he thought, if it had any chance of surviving. Wehr, who’s 26, isn’t from Greenland—he grew up in Germany—but he had become obsessed with the island, an autonomous Danish territory,…

Roundtables: The Future of Birth Control

September 24, 2025
Conversations around birth control usually focus on women, but Kevin Eisenfrats, one of the MIT Technology Review 2025 Innovators Under 35, is working to change that. His company, Contraline, is working toward testing new birth control options for men. Speakers: Kevin Eisenfrats, Co-founder and CEO of Contraline, and Amy Nordrum, executive editor Recorded on September 24, 2025…

The Download: accidental AI relationships, and the future of contraception

September 24, 2025
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. It’s surprisingly easy to stumble into a relationship with an AI chatbot The news: The first large-scale computational analysis of the Reddit community r/MyBoyfriendIsAI, which is dedicated to discussing AI relationships, found that…