November 14, 2025

These technologies could help put a stop to animal testing

Earlier this week, the UK’s science minister announced an ambitious plan: to phase out animal testing. Testing potential skin irritants on animals will be stopped by the end of next year, according to a strategy released on Tuesday. By 2027, researchers are “expected to end” tests of the strength of Botox on mice. And drug tests…

A chatbot that asks questions could help you spot when it makes no sense

April 28, 2023
AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Bing, and Bard are excellent at crafting sentences that sound like human writing. But they often present falsehoods as facts and have inconsistent logic, and that can be hard to spot.  One way around this problem, a new study suggests, is to change the way the AI presents information. Getting users…

How an undercover content moderator polices the metaverse

April 28, 2023
When Ravi Yekkanti puts on his headset to go to work, he never knows what the day spent in virtual reality will bring. Who might he meet? Will a child’s voice accost him with a racist remark? Will a cartoon try to grab his genitals? He adjusts the extraterrestrial-looking goggles haloing his head as he…

How bugs and chemicals in your poo could give away exactly what you’ve eaten

April 28, 2023
This article is from The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, sign up here. Feces are good for so much more than flushing. Yes, our waste contains the stuff that our bodies are generally trying to get rid of. But it can also provide insight into…

Reddit is testing Discord-like channels for community chat

April 28, 2023

Reddit announced Thursday that it is testing Discord-like chat channels with select subreddits. With this move, the social network is trying to give more avenues for community members to interact with each other apart from the usual asynchronous commenting system. The company said it is starting this test with 25 volunteer subreddits — the company didn’t […]

Reddit is testing Discord-like channels for community chat by Ivan Mehta originally published on TechCrunch

Amazon omits India business in earnings, a first in years

April 28, 2023

Amazon omitted India updates in Thursday’s earnings call and release, a notable change for the e-commerce giant that has consistently highlighted rapid growth in the South Asian market. The absence of India in the quarterly earnings, the first since early 2014, follows Amazon’s shutdown of multiple services, including food delivery and wholesale distribution, in the […]

Amazon omits India business in earnings, a first in years by Manish Singh originally published on TechCrunch

Muslims come into the frame in Southeast Asia’s fintech boom

April 28, 2023

Founded in 2014, Blossom Finance was first intended for Muslim entrepreneurs in the United States. The microfinancing platform connects investors with small businesses using mudarabah, a shariah-compliant profit-sharing agreement. But founder Matthew Joseph Martin soon realized that the startup, backed by investors like Boost VC and Tim Draper, was serving a relatively niche market in […]

Muslims come into the frame in Southeast Asia’s fintech boom by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

Clubhouse needs to fix things, and today it cut more than half of staff

April 27, 2023

Clubhouse, a once skyrocketing social audio app built by Paul Davison and Rohan Seth, has laid off more than half of its staff. The startup’s co-founders made the decision in response to customer habits changing in a post-COVID world and remote work complexities, according to a blog post. Those who were impacted will receive severance […]

Clubhouse needs to fix things, and today it cut more than half of staff by Natasha Mascarenhas originally published on TechCrunch