Technology

Five ways to make music streaming better for the climate

July 17, 2024
This story first appeared in China Report, MIT Technology Review’s newsletter about technology in China. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Tuesday. This week, we are taking a short break from China and turning to its neighbor South Korea instead. As K-pop sweeps the world and accumulates a massive, devout fan base, these fans…

Google, Amazon and the problem with Big Tech’s climate claims

July 17, 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 from the series here. Last week, Amazon trumpeted that it had purchased enough clean electricity to cover the energy demands of all the offices, data centers, grocery stores, and warehouses across its…

The Download: K-pop stans’ climate plans, and what AI isn’t

July 16, 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. Music streaming can be a drag on the environment. These K-pop fans want to clean it up. K-pop fans have for years been known for their incredible organizing power. As their numbers have…

A short history of AI, and what it is (and isn’t)

July 16, 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. It’s the simplest questions that are often the hardest to answer. That applies to AI, too. Even though it’s a technology being sold as a solution to the world’s problems, nobody…

The Download: how AI affects creativity, and CRISPR babies

July 15, 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. AI can make you more creative—but it has limits Generative AI models have made it simpler and quicker to produce everything from text passages and images to video clips and audio tracks. But…

Unlocking secure, private AI with confidential computing

July 12, 2024
All of a sudden, it seems that AI is everywhere, from executive assistant chatbots to AI code assistants. But despite the proliferation of AI in the zeitgeist, many organizations are proceeding with caution. This is due to the perception of the security quagmires AI presents. For the emerging technology to reach its full potential, data…

AI can make you more creative—but it has limits

July 12, 2024
Generative AI models have made it simpler and quicker to produce everything from text passages and images to video clips and audio tracks. Texts and media that might have taken years for humans to create can now be generated in seconds. But while AI’s output can certainly seem creative, do these models actually boost human…

The Download: robot-packed meals, and the looming fertility crisis

July 12, 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. Robot-packed meals are coming to the frozen-food aisle What’s happening: Advances in artificial intelligence are coming to your freezer, in the form of robot-assembled prepared meals. Chef Robotics, a San Francisco-based startup, has…