Technology

Inside Amsterdam’s high-stakes experiment to create fair welfare AI

June 11, 2025
This story is a partnership between MIT Technology Review, Lighthouse Reports, and Trouw, and was supported by the Pulitzer Center.  Two futures Hans de Zwart, a gym teacher turned digital rights advocate, says that when he saw Amsterdam’s plan to have an algorithm evaluate every welfare applicant in the city for potential fraud, he nearly…

The Download: IBM’s quantum computer, and cuts to military AI testing

June 10, 2025
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. IBM aims to build the world’s first large-scale, error-corrected quantum computer by 2028 The news: IBM announced detailed plans today to build an error-corrected quantum computer with significantly more computational capability than existing…

IBM aims to build the world’s first large-scale, error-corrected quantum computer by 2028

June 10, 2025
IBM announced detailed plans today to build an error-corrected quantum computer with significantly more computational capability than existing machines by 2028. It hopes to make the computer available to users via the cloud by 2029.  The proposed machine, named Starling, will consist of a network of modules, each of which contains a set of chips,…

The Pentagon is gutting the team that tests AI and weapons systems

June 10, 2025
The Trump administration’s chainsaw approach to federal spending lives on, even as Elon Musk turns on the president. On May 28, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced he’d be gutting a key office at the Department of Defense responsible for testing and evaluating the safety of weapons and AI systems. As part of a string…

The Download: an inspiring toy robot arm, and why AM radio matters

June 9, 2025
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 a 1980s toy robot arm inspired modern robotics —Jon Keegan As a child of an electronic engineer, I spent a lot of time in our local Radio Shack as a kid. While…

The Download: China’s AI agent boom, and GPS alternatives

June 6, 2025
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. Manus has kick-started an AI agent boom in China Last year, China saw a boom in foundation models, the do-everything large language models that underpin the AI revolution. This year, the focus has…

Why doctors should look for ways to prescribe hope

June 6, 2025
This week, I’ve been thinking about the powerful connection between mind and body. Some new research suggests that people with heart conditions have better outcomes when they are more hopeful and optimistic. Hopelessness, on the other hand, is associated with a significantly higher risk of death. The findings build upon decades of fascinating research into…

Inside the race to find GPS alternatives

June 6, 2025
Later this month, an inconspicuous 150-kilogram satellite is set to launch into space aboard the SpaceX Transporter 14 mission. Once in orbit, it will test super-accurate next-generation satnav technology designed to make up for the shortcomings of the US Global Positioning System (GPS).  The satellite is the first of a planned constellation called Pulsar, which…

Manus has kick-started an AI agent boom in China

June 5, 2025
Last year, China saw a boom in foundation models, the do-everything large language models that underpin the AI revolution. This year, the focus has shifted to AI agents—systems that are less about responding to users’ queries and more about autonomously accomplishing things for them.  There are now a host of Chinese startups building these general-purpose…