October 17, 2024

AI could help people find common ground during deliberations

Reaching a consensus in a democracy is difficult because people hold such different ideological, political, and social views.  Perhaps an AI tool could help. Researchers from Google DeepMind trained a system of large language models (LLMs) to operate as a “caucus mediator,” generating summaries that outline a group’s areas of agreement on complex but important…

Technology

The Download: AI for good, and China’s shrinking internet

June 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. What I learned from the UN’s “AI for Good” summit —Melissa Heikkilä Last week, Geneva played host to the UN’s AI for Good Summit. The summit’s big focus was how AI can be…

What I learned from the UN’s “AI for Good” summit

June 4, 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. Greetings from Switzerland! I’ve just come back from Geneva, which last week hosted the UN’s AI for Good Summit, organized by the International Telecommunication Union. The summit’s big focus was how AI can…

Samara is accelerating the energy transition in Spain one solar panel at a time

June 4, 2024

Since the shock of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, solar energy has been having a moment in Europe. Electricity prices have been going up while the investment required to get solar panels installed on your roof has been going down. This is due to new subsidies, better technology and several European startups that are working […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The Download: MDMA for PTSD, and Boeing’s rearranged space flight

June 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. What’s next for MDMA MDMA has been banned in the United States for more than three decades. But now, this potent mind-altering drug is poised to become a badly needed therapy for PTSD.…

What’s next for MDMA

June 3, 2024
MIT Technology Review’s What’s Next series looks across industries, trends, and technologies to give you a first look at the future. You can read the rest of them here. MDMA, sometimes called Molly or ecstasy, has been banned in the United States for more than three decades. Now this potent mind-altering drug is poised to become…

Disrupt 2024 early-bird prices end at midnight

May 31, 2024

This is not a drill! Today marks the final day to secure your early-bird tickets for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 at a significantly reduced rate. At midnight tonight, May 31, ticket prices will increase, so act now to save up to $800 on admission to one of the most anticipated technology conferences of the year. Disrupt […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The Download: Google’s AI Overviews nightmare, and improving search and rescue drones

May 31, 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. Why Google’s AI Overviews gets things wrong When Google announced it was rolling out its artificial intelligence-powered search feature earlier this month, the company promised that “Google will do the googling for you.”The…

Why are Google’s AI Overviews results so bad?

May 31, 2024
MIT Technology Review Explains: Let our writers untangle the complex, messy world of technology to help you understand what’s coming next. You can read more here. When Google announced it was rolling out its artificial intelligence-powered search feature earlier this month, the company promised that “Google will do the googling for you.” The new feature,…