Technology

During Amazon’s Devices event, the company introduced a new Alexa feature that aims to support users with mobility or speech disabilities. This marks Alexa’s first time using eye-driven communication technology. Called “Eye Gaze,” the eye-tracking feature detects a user’s presence and follows what they’re looking at in real-time. Users will be able to glance at […]

Amazon kicked off today’s Fall Devices Event with an update to its Echo Show 8. The small smart screen features smart home hub functionality and improved audio quality. The latter arrives by way of “custom-built spatial audio processing technology.” “We’ve also added room adaption technology that senses the acoustics of the space and then fine-tunes […]

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 […]

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…

Here’s another edition of “Ask Sophie,” the advice column that answers immigration-related questions about working at technology companies.

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 […]