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The technology behind OpenAI’s fiction-writing, fake-news-spewing AI, explained
MIT Technology Review - by Karen Hao
The language model can write like a human, but it doesn’t have a clue what it’s saying. Last Thursday (Feb. 14), the nonprofit research firm OpenAI …
Technology
The Best of the Physics arXiv (week ending February 16, 2019)
MIT Technology Review - by Emerging Technology from the arXiv
This week’s most thought-provoking papers from the Physics arXiv. Learn today what the rest of the world won’t know until tomorrow, at Business of …
Technology
Self-driving cars take the wheel
MIT Technology Review - by MIT Technology Review Insights
Advanced technologies come together to get autonomous vehicles driving safely and efficiently. Autonomous vehicles are here, and they’re here to stay. …
Technology
Watch a harpoon successfully spear a piece of space junk
MIT Technology Review
This is the third in a series of successful space trash clean up tests by the RemoveDEBRIS spacecraft. Gotcha: The RemoveDEBRIS satellite, created by …
Cognitive Computing
AI is reinventing the way we invent
MIT Technology Review - by David Rotman
The biggest impact of artificial intelligence will be to help humans make discoveries we couldn’t make on our own. Regina Barzilay’s office at MIT …
Technology
Facebook is set to pay a multi-billion dollar fine to settle a US privacy probe
MIT Technology Review
The fine is likely to be the largest the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has ever imposed on a technology company. The fine: Facebook will pay a …
Technology
NASA’s new telescope will investigate the evolution of the universe
MIT Technology Review
The telescope is projected to launch in 2023. A bit of a mouthful: This week, NASA announced it will create the Spectro-Photometer for the History of …
Technology
Explainer: What is quantum communication?
MIT Technology Review - by Martin Giles
Researchers and companies are creating ultra-secure communication networks that could form the basis of a quantum internet. This is how it …
Cave Paintings
We should gene-sequence cave paintings to find out more about who made them
MIT Technology Review - by Emerging Technology from the arXiv
Standard archeological techniques can’t determine whether the prehistoric artists were hunter-gatherers or farmers. Analyzing the paintings’ surfaces …
Cryptocurrency
JPMorgan is launching its own cryptocurrency—but it’s nothing like Bitcoin
MIT Technology Review
Less than two years ago, Jamie Dimon (above), CEO of JPMorgan Chase, called Bitcoin a “fraud.” Today his bank announced that it is planning iminent …
Artificial Intelligence
An AI tool auto-generates fake news, bogus tweets, and plenty of gibberish
MIT Technology Review - by Will Knight
Fed with billions of words, this algorithm dreams up convincing articles and shows how AI could power disinformation campaigns. Here’s some breaking …
A “second skin” for fruit and veg could make them last twice as long
MIT Technology Review - by Charlotte Jee
We throw away a third of all our fruit and vegetables. California-based firm Apeel wants to change that with a natural coating that keeps produce …
Ants
An insect-bot mimics desert ants by looking at the sky to navigate
MIT Technology Review
A new robot can navigate without GPS, using the same light-sensing abilities as desert ants. Inspiration: Desert ants survive in searingly hot …
Why the future of satellite internet might be decided in rural Alaska
MIT Technology Review - by Erin Winick
The internet in the rural areas of the state is abysmal, which makes it the perfect place to test next generation satellite internet. Eleven months …
Police across the US are training crime-predicting AIs on falsified data
MIT Technology Review - by Karen Hao
A new report shows how supposedly objective systems can perpetuate corrupt policing practices. In May of 2010, prompted by a series of high-profile …
Opportunity Rover
The end has finally come for NASA’s Opportunity Mars rover
MIT Technology Review - by Erin Winick
After a 15-year stay on our planetary neighbor, NASA is about to end its attempts to communicate with the robot. It looks like Mars rover Opportunity …
Technology
This robot can melt then re-form its legs to change how it walks
MIT Technology Review
It can adapt to different walking styles by melting and then re-solidifying its structure. How it works: The small, four-legged robot has a 3D-printed …
Technology
This is why AI has yet to reshape most businesses
MIT Technology Review - by Brian Bergstein
Deploying artificial intelligence is so complicated and expensive that outside companies like Google and Amazon, it often doesn’t make economic sense. …
Climate activists with cheap balloons could create a DIY geoengineering nightmare
MIT Technology Review - by James Temple
That scenario poses new questions about the ability to regulate the technology. The scenario would go something like this. It’s the year 2051. A decade …
Technology
A cell-killing strategy to slow aging passed its first test this year
MIT Technology Review - by Karen Weintraub
Are tired-out cells what make people old? A new generation of drugs is designed to wipe them out. A red-hot anti-aging strategy quietly passed its …
When will we have flying cars? Maybe sooner than you think.
MIT Technology Review - by Gideon Lichfield
After decades of promises, personal air vehicles are finally getting close to commercial reality—but you still probably won’t own one Flying cars …
Technology
Pricing algorithms can learn to collude with each other to raise prices
MIT Technology Review
If you shop on Amazon, an algorithm rather than a human probably set the price of the service or item you bought. Pricing algorithms have become …
Technology
NASA has discovered another massive crater beneath the ice in Greenland
MIT Technology Review
The meteorite impact crater is the second to have been found in the area in just a few months. The news: The newly found crater reported yesterday in …
Technology
An AI system can diagnose childhood diseases better than some doctors
MIT Technology Review
A new artificial intelligence-based system was able to diagnose children’s illnesses better than some doctors in tests. The study: The deep-learning …
Technology
SpaceX wants to build up to 1 million Earth satellite internet connections
MIT Technology Review
The company just took the next step towards getting satellite internet to customers. The news: You still need ground-based systems to receive a signal …
Technology
A new chemical process could turn a quarter of our plastic waste into clean fuel
MIT Technology Review
A new chemical conversion process could turn nearly a quarter of plastic waste into clean fuel and other products. The problem: The world’s landfill …
Technology
Hybrid planes could shorten the leap to all-electric 737s
MIT Technology Review
But that will still take decades, so we’d better consider other ways of cleaning up carbon emissions from aircraft, too. The challenge: Aviation is …
Technology
More than 26 million people have taken an at-home ancestry test
MIT Technology Review - by Antonio Regalado
The genetic genie is out of the bottle. And it’s not going back. As many people purchased consumer DNA tests in 2018 as in all previous years …
Technology
Russia plans to temporarily disconnect the entire country from the internet
MIT Technology Review
The planned unplugging is part of a cyber war-gaming exercise to make sure Russia can still operate even if it is disconnected from outside its …
Universal Basic Income
Finland’s universal basic income trial made people happier—but not employed
MIT Technology Review
A trial where unemployed people in Finland were given a basic income for two years did not get them into work—but it make them healthier and happier, …

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Artificial Intelligence

Flips

The technology behind OpenAI’s fiction-writing, fake-news-spewing AI, explained

The Best of the Physics arXiv (week ending February 16, 2019)

Self-driving cars take the wheel

Watch a harpoon successfully spear a piece of space junk

AI is reinventing the way we invent

Facebook is set to pay a multi-billion dollar fine to settle a US privacy probe

NASA’s new telescope will investigate the evolution of the universe

Explainer: What is quantum communication?

We should gene-sequence cave paintings to find out more about who made them

JPMorgan is launching its own cryptocurrency—but it’s nothing like Bitcoin

An AI tool auto-generates fake news, bogus tweets, and plenty of gibberish

A “second skin” for fruit and veg could make them last twice as long

An insect-bot mimics desert ants by looking at the sky to navigate

Why the future of satellite internet might be decided in rural Alaska

Police across the US are training crime-predicting AIs on falsified data

The end has finally come for NASA’s Opportunity Mars rover

This robot can melt then re-form its legs to change how it walks

This is why AI has yet to reshape most businesses

Climate activists with cheap balloons could create a DIY geoengineering nightmare

A cell-killing strategy to slow aging passed its first test this year

When will we have flying cars? Maybe sooner than you think.

Pricing algorithms can learn to collude with each other to raise prices

NASA has discovered another massive crater beneath the ice in Greenland

An AI system can diagnose childhood diseases better than some doctors

SpaceX wants to build up to 1 million Earth satellite internet connections

A new chemical process could turn a quarter of our plastic waste into clean fuel

Hybrid planes could shorten the leap to all-electric 737s

More than 26 million people have taken an at-home ancestry test

Russia plans to temporarily disconnect the entire country from the internet

Finland’s universal basic income trial made people happier—but not employed