December 26, 2025

MIT Technology Review’s most popular stories of 2025

It’s been a busy and productive year here at MIT Technology Review. We published magazine issues on power, creativity, innovation, bodies, relationships, and security. We hosted 14 exclusive virtual conversations with our editors and outside experts in our subscriber-only series, Roundtables, and held two events on MIT’s campus. And we published hundreds of articles online,…

Character.AI, the a16z-backed chatbot startup, tops 1.7M installs in first week

May 31, 2023

Demand for AI via consumer mobile apps has been climbing, with market leader OpenAI’s ChatGPT mobile app topping half a million downloads in its first six days. Now, another AI app is touting its own launch success, as the a16z-backed Character.AI app is claiming to have pulled in over 1.7 million new installs in less […]

Character.AI, the a16z-backed chatbot startup, tops 1.7M installs in first week by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch

A brief history of VR and AR

May 31, 2023

By the time Howard Rheingold’s “Virtual Reality” was published in 1991, the Sensorama was already a “slowly deteriorating” relic stashed away in a cabana next the pool at its inventor’s West Los Angeles home. Rheingold describes awe — even surprise — that the system was still operable almost 30 years after its introduction. “I was […]

A brief history of VR and AR by Brian Heater originally published on TechCrunch

Instagram tests new user control for recommended posts, transparency tool for creators

May 31, 2023

Instagram announced today that it’s testing a new feature that gives users more control over what they see on the social network, along with a new transparency tool for creators. Now, when users see recommended posts, they can select a new “Interested” button that will inform the app that they want to see more of that […]

Instagram tests new user control for recommended posts, transparency tool for creators by Aisha Malik originally published on TechCrunch