December 3, 2025

The Download: AI and coding, and Waymo’s aggressive driverless cars

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. Everything you need to know about AI and coding AI has already transformed how code is written, but a new wave of autonomous systems promise to make the process even smoother and less…

Technology

Never say die

October 26, 2022
Hi. How are you? I have some news. You’re going to die. We’re all going to die.  I’ve been thinking about this not only because we’ve been putting this issue, the Mortality issue, together but also because I’ve hit one of those arbitrary milestones in life. Which is to say I turn 50 this month. …

Cars are still cars—even when they’re electric

October 26, 2022
EVs are being touted as the solution to our climate crisis—but are they? In the fall of 2021, President Joe Biden made a stop in Detroit to promote the Democrats’ infrastructure bill and the electric-vehicle rollout being touted by the administration as a key measure to address the climate crisis. But his visit showed exactly…

Everything dies, including information

October 26, 2022
Everything dies: people, machines, civilizations. Perhaps we can find some solace in knowing that all the meaningful things we’ve learned along the way will survive. But even knowledge has a life span. Documents fade. Art goes missing. Entire libraries and collections can face quick and unexpected destruction.  Surely, we’re at a stage technologically where we…

Trigo raises $100M to expand its Amazon-style cashier-free store technology

October 26, 2022

Amazon has become the pacemaker in commerce, and today a startup that’s been building technology to help retailers keep up with it in the world of physical stores is announcing some funding to expand its business. Trigo, an Israeli startup that builds technology for stores to operate cashier-free, “just walk out” experiences similar to those […]

Trigo raises $100M to expand its Amazon-style cashier-free store technology by Ingrid Lunden originally published on TechCrunch

Flush with Series A funding, Daye unwraps the big gynae health mission

October 26, 2022

Talking to Valentina Milanova, the still just 28-year-old founder of U.K. femtech Daye, is best described as an exhilarating experience. During our interview, she talks in and around her topic — building a startup supporting women’s sexual and reproductive health — non-stop for the best part of an hour, barely pausing for breath and without […]

Flush with Series A funding, Daye unwraps the big gynae health mission by Natasha Lomas originally published on TechCrunch

Alan ’72 and Joan Henricks

October 26, 2022
“MIT was a very humbling experience for me,” says Alan Henricks, one of the first generation in his Midwestern family to attend college. “But at the end of four years, it also gave me self-confidence to go forward in the world.” Doc Edgerton’s legacy. Alan, who went on to a successful career of leadership roles…

Dynamic duo

October 26, 2022
Robert Downey Jr. got to wear Iron Man’s suit playing fictional MIT alum Tony Stark on the big screen. But he marveled at what he called “real-world technology miracles” when he met up with Professor Hugh Herr, who coleads MIT’s K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics, in July. Downey serves on the center’s executive advisory…

Building the next version of the internet

October 26, 2022
Kirin Sinha ’14 remembers the first time she worked with augmented reality (AR) as a student at MIT. With a friend and fellow engineer, she built the Ironman desk—a computer system and AI technology that uses holographic projections controlled by hand movements and voice commands. Today, she is the founder and CEO of Illumix, a…

Ten to One founder aims to change people’s perception of rum

October 26, 2022
When you think of rum, what comes to mind? A strawberry daiquiri? A piña colada with a cocktail umbrella? Marc-Kwesi Farrell ’03 thinks there is a lot more to rum than that, and he’s on a mission to reinvent the spirit as a versatile, top-shelf drink.  “If you look at rum today, it is saddled…

Square Peg Capital closes $550M fund for Southeast Asia, Australia and Israel

October 26, 2022

It’s a tough market for venture capital, but Square Peg Capital is plowing ahead with its focus on Australia (where it is based), Southeast Asia and Israel. The firm announced today that it has closed its fifth fund totaling $550 million. This brings its total raised across all funds to about $1.6 billion. Square Peg […]

Square Peg Capital closes $550M fund for Southeast Asia, Australia and Israel by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch