October 7, 2025

The US is set to cancel funding for two major direct-air capture plants

The Department of Energy appears poised to terminate funding for a pair of large carbon sucking factories that were originally set to receive more than $1 billion in government grants, according to a department issued list of projects obtained by MIT Technology Review and circulating among federal agencies. The projects include the South Texas Direct…

Three takeaways about the state of Chinese tech in the US

April 24, 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. I’ve wanted to learn more about the world of solar panels ever since I realized just how dominant Chinese companies have become in this field. Although much of the technology involved was…

Parloa, a conversational AI platform for customer service, raises $66M

April 24, 2024

Conversational AI platform Parloa has nabbed $66 million in a Series B round of funding, a year after the German startup raised $21 million from a swathe of European investors to propel its international growth. The company is focusing on the U.S. market in particular, where Parloa opened a New York office last year — […]

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What tech learned from Daedalus

April 24, 2024
Today’s climate-change kraken may have been unleashed by human activity—which has discharged greenhouse-gas emissions into Earth’s atmosphere for centuries—but reversing course and taming nature’s growing fury seems beyond human means, a quest only mythical heroes could fulfill. Yet the dream of human-powered flight—of rising over the Mediterranean fueled merely by the strength of mortal limbs—was…

This creamy vegan cheese was made with AI

April 24, 2024
As Climax Foods CEO Oliver Zahn serves up a plate of vegan brie, feta, and blue cheese in his offices in Emeryville, California, I’m keeping my expectations modest. Most vegan cheese falls into an edible uncanny valley full of discomforting not-quite-right versions of the real thing. But the brie I taste today is smooth, rich,…

Job titles of the future: AI prompt engineer

April 24, 2024
The role of AI prompt engineer attracted attention for its high-six-figure salaries when it emerged in early 2023. Companies define it in different ways, but its principal aim is to help a company integrate AI into its operations.  Danai Myrtzani of Sleed, a digital marketing agency in Greece, describes herself as more prompter than engineer.…

How we transform to a fully decarbonized world

April 24, 2024
In 1856, Napoleon III commissioned a baby rattle for his newborn son, to be made from one of the most precious metals known at the time: light, silvery, and corrosion-resistant aluminum. Despite its abundance—it’s the third most common element in Earth’s crust—the metal wasn’t isolated until 1824, and the complexity and cost of the process…

Quartz, cobalt, and the waste we leave behind

April 24, 2024
Some time before the first dinosaurs, two supercontinents, Laurasia and Gondwana, collided, forcing molten rock out from the depths of the Earth. As eons passed, the liquid rock cooled and geological forces carved this rocky fault line into Pico Sacro, a strange conical peak that sits like a wizard’s hat near the northwestern corner of…

Madica, a program by Flourish Ventures, steps up pre-seed investing in Africa

April 24, 2024

Madica, an investment program launched by US-based investor Flourish Ventures to back pre-seed startups in Africa, plans to invest in up to 10 ventures by the end of the year, ramping up its funding efforts after closing three initial three deals. Madica disclosed the plans to TechCrunch indicating accelerated investing in the coming year as […]

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Google-backed Glance pilots Android lockscreen platform in US

April 24, 2024

Glance, which operates a lockscreen platform targetting Android smartphones, is setting its sights on the U.S. market. The Indian startup recently commenced a pilot program in partnership with Motorola and Verizon in the U.S., with plans for a full launch in the country later this year, sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. The Bengaluru-headquartered […]

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