McKinsey and General Catalyst execs say the era of ‘learn once, work forever’ is over
Calacanis, General Catalyst’s Taneja, and McKinsey’s Sternfels discussed how AI is reshaping technology and the labor force.
“Dr. Google” had its issues. Can ChatGPT Health do better?
For the past two decades, there’s been a clear first step for anyone who starts experiencing new medical symptoms: Look them up online. The practice was so common that it gained the pejorative moniker “Dr. Google.” But times are changing, and many medical-information seekers are now using LLMs. According to OpenAI, 230 million people ask…
Technology
Meta’s Manus news is getting different receptions in Washington and Beijing
Chinese officials are reportedly reviewing whether the Meta deal violates technology export controls, potentially giving Beijing leverage it wasn’t initially perceived as having.
Powering up (and saving) the planet
Water shortages in Southern California made an indelible impression on Evelyn Wang ’00 when she was growing up in Los Angeles. “I was quite young, perhaps in first grade,” she says. “But I remember we weren’t allowed to turn our sprinklers on. And everyone in the neighborhood was given disinfectant tablets for the toilet and…
Starstruck
Few people, if any, contemplate stars—celestial or cinematic—the way Aomawa Shields does. An astronomer and astrobiologist, Shields explores the potential habitability of planets beyond our solar system. But she is also a classically trained actor—and that’s helped shape her professional trajectory in unexpected ways. Today, Shields is an associate professor in the Department of Physics…
Dennis Whyte’s fusion quest
Ever since nuclear fusion was discovered in the 1930s, scientists have wondered if we could somehow replicate and harness the phenomenon behind starlight—the smashing together of hydrogen atoms to form helium and a stupendous amount of clean energy. Fusing hydrogen would yield 200 million times more energy than simply burning it. Unlike nuclear fission, which…
Investing in the promise of quantum
As MIT navigates a difficult and constantly changing higher education landscape, I believe our best response is not easy but simple: Keep doing our very best work. The presidential initiatives we’ve launched since fall 2024 are a vital part of our strategy to advance excellence within and across high-impact fields, from health care, climate, and…
The Download: our predictions for AI, and good climate news
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 AI in 2026 In an industry in constant flux, sticking your neck out to predict what’s coming next may seem reckless. (AI bubble? What AI bubble?) But for the last…
Europe’s drone-filled vision for the future of war
Last spring, 3,000 British soldiers of the 4th Light Brigade, also known as the Black Rats, descended upon the damp forests of Estonia’s eastern territories. They had rushed in from Yorkshire by air, sea, rail, and road. Once there, the Rats joined 14,000 other troops at the front line, dug in, and waited for the…
Why AI predictions are so hard
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. Sometimes AI feels like a niche topic to write about, but then the holidays happen, and I hear relatives of all ages talking about cases of chatbot-induced psychosis, blaming rising electricity prices…
The overlooked driver of digital transformation
When business leaders talk about digital transformation, their focus often jumps straight to cloud platforms, AI tools, or collaboration software. Yet, one of the most fundamental enablers of how organizations now work, and how employees experience that work, is often overlooked: audio. As Genevieve Juillard, CEO of IDC, notes, the shift to hybrid collaboration made…