Technology

Companies need to stop taking the easy way out on climate goals

July 18, 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. Corporate climate claims can be confusing—and sometimes entirely unintuitive.  Tech giants Amazon and Google both recently released news about their efforts to clean up their climate impact. Both were a mixed bag,…

What’s next for SpaceX’s Falcon 9

July 18, 2024
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is one of the world’s safest, most productive rockets. But now it’s been grounded: A rare engine malfunction on July 11 prompted the US Federal Aviation Administration to initiate an investigation and halt all Falcon 9 flights until further notice. The incident has exposed the risks of the US aerospace industry’s heavy…

Transforming the energy industry through disruptive innovation

July 17, 2024
In the rhythm of our fast-paced lives, most of us don’t stop to think about where electricity comes from or or how it powers homes, industries, and the technologies that connect people around the world. As populations and economies grow, energy demands are set to increase by 50% by 2050–challenging century-old energy systems to adapt…

The Download: Big Tech’s climate claims, and reducing your music streaming carbon footprint

July 17, 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. Google, Amazon and the problem with Big Tech’s climate claims Last week, Amazon trumpeted that it had purchased enough clean electricity to cover the energy demands of all its global operations, seven years…

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…