October 18, 2024

Oropouche virus is spreading. Here’s what we know.

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. There have been plenty of reports of potentially concerning viruses this last year. Covid is still causing thousands of deaths, and bird flu appears set to make the…

Technology

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,…

What’s next for bird flu vaccines

May 31, 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.  Here in the US, bird flu has now infected cows in nine states, millions of chickens, and—as of last week—a second dairy worker. There’s no indication that the…

You’ve spoken! Meet the Disrupt 2024 breakout session audience choice winners

May 30, 2024

TechCrunch Disrupt showcases cutting-edge technology and innovation, and this year’s edition will not disappoint. Among thousands of insightful breakout session submissions for this year’s Audience Choice program, five breakout sessions have soared to the top and were selected by thousands of people from around the globe to speak at this year’s event. Without further ado, […]

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

AI-directed drones could help find lost hikers faster

May 30, 2024
If a hiker gets lost in the rugged Scottish Highlands, rescue teams sometimes send up a drone to search for clues of the individual’s route—trampled vegetation, dropped clothing, food wrappers. But with vast terrain to cover and limited battery life, picking the right area to search is critical. Traditionally, expert drone pilots use a combination…

Autobiographer’s app uses AI to help you tell your life story

May 30, 2024

Can an AI help you tell your story? That’s the idea behind a startup called Autobiographer which leverages AI technology to engage users in meaningful conversations about the events in their lives and how they felt about them, and then turns those into prose, effectively creating your own autobiography. The startup is dabbling in an […]

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

The Download: the future of electroceuticals, and bigger EVs

May 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 messy quest to replace drugs with electricity In the early 2010s, electricity seemed poised for a hostile takeover of your doctor’s office. Research into how the nervous system—the highway that carries electrical…

Why bigger EVs aren’t always better

May 30, 2024
This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. SUVs are taking over the world—larger vehicle models made up nearly half of new car sales globally in 2023, a new record for the segment.  There are a lot of reasons to…

The messy quest to replace drugs with electricity

May 30, 2024
In the early 2010s, electricity seemed poised for a hostile takeover of your doctor’s office. Research into how the nervous system controls the immune response was gaining traction. And that had opened the door to the possibility of hacking into the body’s circuitry and thereby controlling a host of chronic diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, asthma,…