November 8, 2024

The Download: AI vs quantum, and the future of reproductive rights in the US

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. Why AI could eat quantum computing’s lunch Tech companies have been funneling billions of dollars into quantum computers for years. The hope is that they’ll be a game changer for fields as diverse…

The return of pneumatic tubes

June 19, 2024
Pneumatic tubes were touted as something that would revolutionize the world. In science fiction, they were envisioned as a fundamental part of the future—even in dystopias like George Orwell’s 1984, where the main character, Winston Smith, sits in a room peppered with pneumatic tubes that spit out orders for him to alter previously published news…

I tested out a buzzy new text-to-video AI model from China

June 19, 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. You may not be familiar with Kuaishou, but this Chinese company just hit a major milestone: It’s released the first text-to-video generative AI model that’s freely available for the public…

How Abridge became one of the most talked about healthcare AI startups

June 19, 2024

Ask any of the health-focused VCs to name one of the top AI startups and one name comes up over and over again: a company  based in Pittsburgh called Abridge. And it’s a startup that launched before OpenAI was a household name and LLMs entered the common Valley vocabulary.  In 2019, Shiv Rao, a practicing […]

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Kilimo helps farmers save water and get paid for it

June 19, 2024

Cheap irrigation has transformed many regions around the world into breadbaskets, but it also means that there can be little left for other uses.

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Fisker failed because it wasn’t ready to be a car company

June 18, 2024

Two years ago, an employee at Fisker Inc. told me that the most pressing concern inside the EV startup was not whether its Ocean SUV would get built. Fisker was outsourcing the manufacturing of its first EV to highly respected automotive supplier Magna, after all. The startup’s November 2022 start-of-production target was aggressive, but not […]

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iOS 18 could ‘sherlock’ $400M in app revenue

June 18, 2024

Apple’s changes may affect apps that today have an estimated $393 million in revenue and have been downloaded roughly 58 million times over the past year.

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Snap previews its real-time image model that can generate AR experiences

June 18, 2024

At the Augmented World Expo on Tuesday, Snap teased an early version of its real-time, on-device image diffusion model that can generate vivid AR experiences. The company also unveiled generative AI tools for AR creators. Snap co-founder and CTO Bobby Murphy said on-stage that the model is small enough to run on a smartphone and […]

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How Keeping Things Simple Helps Your Company Innovate and Grow

June 18, 2024
This article explores why simplicity is challenging yet essential, highlighting examples from successful companies like Ikea and Nike, and offers practical advice on how simplifying processes, communications and product development can lead to better outcomes and substantial business success.