Technology

What is AI?

July 10, 2024
Internet nastiness, name-calling, and other not-so-petty, world-altering disagreements AI is sexy, AI is cool. AI is entrenching inequality, upending the job market, and wrecking education. AI is a theme-park ride, AI is a magic trick. AI is our final invention, AI is a moral obligation. AI is the buzzword of the decade, AI is marketing…

The Download: planning a honeymoon with AI, and deepfakes in 2024

July 9, 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. Can AI help me plan my honeymoon? —Melissa Heikkilä I’m getting married later this summer and am feverishly planning a honeymoon together with my fiancé. It has been at times overwhelming trying to…

Can AI help me plan my honeymoon?

July 9, 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. I’m getting married later this summer and am feverishly planning a honeymoon together with my fiancé. It has been at times overwhelming trying to research and decide between what seem like…

The Download: vacation planning with AI, and smaller models

July 8, 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. How to use AI to plan your next vacation Planning a vacation should, in theory, be fun. But it can also be time-consuming and stressful, particularly if you don’t know where to begin.…

How to use AI to plan your next vacation

July 8, 2024
MIT Technology Review’s How To series helps you get things done. Planning a vacation should, in theory, be fun. But drawing up a list of activities for a trip can also be time-consuming and stressful, particularly if you don’t know where to begin. Luckily tech companies have been competing to create tools that can help…

The Download: AI agents, and how to detect a lie

July 5, 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 are AI agents? When ChatGPT was first released, everyone in AI was talking about the new generation of AI assistants. But over the past year, that excitement has turned to a new…

What are AI agents? 

July 5, 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. When ChatGPT was first released, everyone in AI was talking about the new generation of AI assistants. But over the past year, that excitement has turned…

AI lie detectors are better than humans at spotting lies

July 5, 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.  Can you spot a liar? It’s a question I imagine has been on a lot of minds lately, in the wake of various televised political debates. Research has…

The Download: recycling clothing, and fish-friendly hydropower

July 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. A polyester-dissolving process could make modern clothing recyclable   The news: Less than 1% of clothing is recycled. Most of the rest ends up dumped in a landfill or burned. A team of researchers…

What new hydropower tech says about climate action

July 4, 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. For nearly two years, I’ve been thinking about a set of photos of fish I saw at a conference.  The presentation was from our ClimateTech event in 2022, when we invited scientists,…