MIT Technology ReviewStoryboardHow Silicon Valley hatched a plan to turn blood into lab-made human eggsCurated byMIT Technology ReviewA well-connected startup company is trying to rewrite the rules of reproduction as we know them. If they succeed, they could cancel the age limits on female fertility, supercharge the path to designer children, and even open the door for same-sex reproduction.
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboardHow Amazon Ring uses domestic violence to market doorbell camerasCurated byMIT Technology ReviewPartnerships with law enforcement give smart cameras to the survivors of domestic violence. But who does it really help?
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboardInside the quest to understand the most complex thing on the planet: our brain Curated byMIT Technology ReviewThe brain is the most complex bit of technology on the planet. Our newest magazine issue looks at how neuroscience is learning how this mass of cells and connections somehow produces the mind—and all the mysterious and essential parts of being a human that go with it.
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboardDigital beauty filters are perpetuating colorism in the age of social mediaCurated byMIT Technology ReviewAn ancient form of prejudice about skin color is flourishing on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat.
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboardShe risked everything to expose Facebook. Now she’s telling her story. Curated byMIT Technology ReviewSophie Zhang, a former data scientist at Facebook, revealed that it enables global political manipulation and has done little to stop it. After nearly a year of avoiding personal questions, Zhang told us her story.
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboardHow a genetic researcher tweeted life into the lab-leak theoryCurated byMIT Technology ReviewAlina Chan tends to point out things that Chinese researchers didn’t do or say, important facts they did not quickly reveal, the infected market animal they never found, or a database that’s no longer online. She’s plainly suggesting there is a cover-up—and, therefore, a plot to conceal the truth.
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboardArtificial intelligence is learning to create itselfCurated byMIT Technology ReviewSupersmart machines might be able to think through humanity’s dead-ends, helping us unpick vastly complex crises such as climate change or global health. But first we have to make it. Or do we?
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboardThe climate solution actually adding millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphereCurated byMIT Technology ReviewNew research shows that California’s climate policy created up to 39 million carbon credits that aren’t achieving real carbon savings. But companies can buy these forest offsets to justify polluting more anyway.
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboardWhy you should celebrate all that cities are—and all they could becomeCurated byMIT Technology ReviewConcerts—remember those? Or maybe you miss restaurants most, or plays, musicals, art galleries, museums, nights out at the pub, the club, a ball game ... ah, those were the days. This magazine, conceived in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic, has come together when the future of cities looks more uncertain than at any other time in recent memory. But the closer we looked, the more we found reason not just to maintain hope but to celebrate all that cities are, and all they could become.
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboardA mouse embryo has been grown in an artificial womb. Humans could be next.Curated byMIT Technology ReviewResearchers in Israel are growing embryos outside the womb for longer than has ever been possible, and according to the research team, human embryos could be next—raising huge new ethical questions.
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboard10 Breakthrough Technologies 2021 Curated byMIT Technology ReviewThis list marks 20 years since we began compiling an annual selection of the year’s most important technologies. As always, three things are true of our list. It is eclectic; some of the innovations on it are clearly making an impact now, while some have yet to do so; and many of them have the potential to do harm as well as good. Taken together, they’re a glimpse into our collective future.
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboardNASA’s Perseverance rover has landed on MarsCurated byMIT Technology ReviewHere's that news and more our favorite stories about the rover and the search for ancient extraterrestrial life on the Red Planet.
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboard“I started crying”: Inside Timnit Gebru’s last days at Google—and what's nextCurated byMIT Technology ReviewAn exclusive interview with the star ethics researcher, in text and podcast forms. In it, we talk with Gebru about what happened in the buildup to her forced exit from Google, what it means for the field and AI ethics research, and how to hold the tech giants accountable.
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboardArtificial intelligence doesn't work until it works for all of usCurated byMIT Technology ReviewData sets so specifically built in and for white spaces represent the constructed reality, not the natural one.
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboardDon't share bad information during election week. Follow these guides.Curated byMIT Technology ReviewHere’s some election-specific advice because we know that there will be bad information, coordinated campaigns, and attempts to amplify harmful content as far as possible through Nov. 3 and beyond.
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboardSuppressing fires has failed. Here’s what California needs to do instead.Curated byMIT Technology ReviewCalifornia must begin to work with fires, not just fight them. That means reversing a century of US fire suppression policies and taking care of the massive build up of fuel in the state's forests, through deliberate, prescribed burns, thinning and "managed wildfire" —which simply means allowing some natural fires to burn. But it has to happen on a huge scale.
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboardAir conditioning tech is the great missed opportunity to fight climate changeCurated byMIT Technology ReviewSoaring AC demand will threaten our power grids and accelerate global warming – unless we begin making major changes soon.
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboardSatellite mega-constellations risk ruining astronomy foreverCurated byMIT Technology ReviewThe true threat these mega-constellations pose to the astronomy community is only just beginning to be understood.
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboardElon Musk’s Neuralink is neuroscience theaterCurated byMIT Technology ReviewRock-climb without fear. See radar with superhuman vision. Cure blindness, paralysis, deafness, and mental illness. Those are just a few of the applications that Musk and employees at his four-year-old neuroscience company believe electronic brain-computer interfaces will one day bring about. None of these advances are close at hand. We look at what could be possible with this technology—and what's a reach for BCIs.
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboardEvangelicals are looking for answers online. They’re finding QAnon instead.Curated byMIT Technology ReviewMore and more evangelicals say they’re seeing QAnon-related content from friends and family. Here’s why certain features of the conspiracy theory have been built to appeal to them—and how churchgoers are being manipulated by the pro-Trump movement.
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboardIn Machines We Trust: a new podcast about the automation of everythingCurated byMIT Technology ReviewSome of the most important decisions in our lives are being made by artificial intelligence, determining things like who gets into college, lands a job, receives social services, or goes to jail—often without us having any clue. In season one of In Machines We Trust, host Jennifer Strong and the team at MIT Technology Review explore the powerful ways that AI is shaping modern life. This world isn’t our future—it’s here. It’s time to understand what’s going on, and what happens next.
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboard“Am I going crazy or am I being stalked?” The online world of gangstalkingCurated byMIT Technology ReviewRight now, on Facebook pages, forums, blogs, YouTube channels, and subreddits across the internet, thousands of people are sharing their belief that they are being “gangstalked” 24/7 by governments and other organizations. These people are mostly, if not exclusively, mentally ill. Yet every day, the internet legitimizes their beliefs, discouraging them from getting professional help or taking medication, and pushing them further down the road of psychosis, with sometimes deadly results.
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboardThe hunt for the algorithms that will protect our data against quantum computingCurated byMIT Technology ReviewQuantum computers could make encryption a thing of the past, but 15 contenders are trying to prove they have what it takes to safeguard your data. The majority believe the solution involves an approach called lattice-based cryptography.
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboardMeet the high-tech Mars rover that's about to search for alien life Curated byMIT Technology ReviewOn Thursday morning, NASA launched its most ambitious effort ever to figure out the story of life in our solar system. The rover Perseverance is bristling with tech made to find signs of alien life, and will land on the Red Planet by February. The new mission will also set up the first ever sample return from another planet.
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboardSome scientists are taking a DIY covid-19 vaccineCurated byMIT Technology ReviewFamed geneticist George Church and at least 20 other researchers, technologists, or science enthusiasts—many connected to Harvard University and MIT—have volunteered as lab rats for a do-it-yourself coronavirus vaccine. They say it’s their only chance to become immune without waiting a year or more for a vaccine to be formally approved. But nobody knows if it’s legal or if it works.
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboardPredictive policing algorithms are racist. They need to be fixed or dismantled.Curated byMIT Technology ReviewA number of studies have shown that these algorithms perpetuate systemic racism, and yet we still know very little about how they work, which police departments and jurisdictions are using them, and for what purpose. All of this needs to change before a proper reckoning can take place. Luckily, the tide may be turning.
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboardIs it safe to send kids back to school? Curated byMIT Technology ReviewPresident Trump is pushing governors to reopen schools. But is it safe? For parents to be able to gauge the level of risk, there are three questions that need answering.
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboardTechnology has let us down. Here's how to make it work for us again. Curated byMIT Technology ReviewPandemic. Inequality. Misinformation. Technology has failed the US and much of the rest of the world in its most important role: keeping us alive and healthy. Here’s how to make it work for us again… and 35 young innovators leading the charge.
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboardTechnology, police brutality, and protests Curated byMIT Technology ReviewTechnology has helped perpetuate racism and the racial profiling of Black Americans. It can also be a catalyst for change. This collection of articles looks at the role police body cams, cellphone video, social media, face recognition, algorithmic policing, and online culture have played in the recent protests and the conditions that led to them.
MIT Technology ReviewStoryboardThe exhausting playbook behind Trump's battle with Twitter Curated byMIT Technology ReviewThe president's response to Twitter's fact-check of his tweets is the latest rehash of an old, unproven grievance.