Technology

2024 Climate Tech Companies to Watch: Ceibo and its copper mining tech

October 1, 2024
Ceibo seeks to eliminate a major potential speed bump for the clean-energy transition: the looming global copper shortage. The firm’s low-impact extraction technology targets ores that aren’t economical to mine today but could help meet the copper demands of an electrified world. Copper wires form the backbone of the clean-energy economy, connecting cars, buildings, and…

The Download: smart glasses, and tiny AI models

October 1, 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. The coolest thing about smart glasses is not the AR. It’s the AI. In case you missed the memo, we are barreling toward the next big consumer device category: smart glasses. At its…

Why bigger is not always better in AI 

October 1, 2024
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. In AI research, everyone seems to think that bigger is better. The idea is that more data, more computing power, and more parameters will lead to models that are more powerful.…

The coolest thing about smart glasses is not the AR. It’s the AI.

October 1, 2024
This article is from The Debrief with Mat Honan, MIT Technology Review’s weekly newsletter from its editor in chief. To receive it every Friday, sign up here. In case you missed the memo, we are barreling toward the next big consumer device category: smart glasses. At its developer conference this week, Meta (née Facebook) introduced a positively mind-blowing…

The Download: how to break up with coal, and AI’s false climate promises

September 30, 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. The UK is done with coal. How’s the rest of the world doing? The UK is shutting down its final coal-fired power plant today, marking the end of an era for the country’s…

The UK is done with coal. How’s the rest of the world doing?

September 30, 2024
The UK is shutting down its final coal-fired power plant today, marking the end of an era for the country’s energy system. Once the backbone of the grid, coal has been steadily replaced with other, less polluting energy sources. Coal is the most emissions-intensive fuel powering the grid today, and moving away from it, even…

Sorry, AI won’t “fix” climate change

September 28, 2024
In an essay last week, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, argued that the accelerating capabilities of AI will usher in an idyllic “Intelligence Age,” unleashing “unimaginable” prosperity and “astounding triumphs” like “fixing the climate.” It’s a promise that no one is in a position to make—and one that, when it comes to the topic…

The Download: safer space travel, and generative AI in video games

September 27, 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. Space travel is dangerous. Could genetic testing and gene editing make it safer? Long-distance space travel can wreak havoc on human health. There’s radiation and microgravity to contend with, as well as the…

Space travel is dangerous. Could genetic testing and gene editing make it safer?

September 27, 2024
This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here. Recently, global news has been pretty bleak. So this week, I’ve decided to focus my thoughts beyond Earth’s stratosphere and well into space. A couple of weeks ago,…