In less than two months, covid-19 created arguably the world’s largest collective shift in social activity and working practices. Research firm Global Workplace Analytics estimated in a 2018 report that 4.3 million people in the US worked remotely, representing just 3.2% of the country’s workforce. In a March 2020 poll of 375 executives by MIT Technology Review Insights, over two-thirds...

The covid-19 pandemic has shown us how much health care is in need of not just tweaking but radical change. The pressure on global health systems, providers, and staff has already been increasing to unsustainable levels. But it also illustrates how much can be achieved in times of crisis: for example, China and the UK recently built thousands of extra beds in intensive care units, or ICUs, in less...

Since the onset of the pandemic, the Technology and Social Change Research Project at Harvard Kennedy’s Shorenstein Center, where I am the director, has been investigating how misinformation, scams, and conspiracies about covid-19 circulate online. If fraudsters are now using the virus to dupe unsuspecting individuals, we thought, then our research on misinformation should focus on understanding...

The good news started trickling out early this morning, first in a vague company press release and then, by midday, from the White House. A drug called remdesivir appears to actually work against the coronavirus that causes covid-19. The news was delivered to President Donald Trump by Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of…

For all the progress that chatbots and virtual assistants have made, they’re still terrible conversationalists. Most are highly task-oriented: you make a demand and they comply. Some are highly frustrating: they never seem to get what you’re looking for. Others are awfully boring: they lack the charm of a human companion. It’s fine when you’re only looking to set a timer. But as these bots...

Economies are in turmoil. Get the answers to the questions on everyone’s mind: What will it take to stabilize and boost regional, national, and global economies?What can business leaders do to prepare for growth?In this nearly worldwide pause, how can organizations reset, rethink, and innovate the way their business is done in order to become more resilient in the face of future threats?...

Technology is changing the nature of work on every level of business, from workforce talent to digital implementation and automation. What technologies are having the most significant impact? How do we make smart, practical decisions that enhance and embrace the technologies redefining the way we work today?  EmTech Next concludes with Eric Yuan, founder and CEO of Zoom, and Stewart Butterfield,...

A continuous stream of emerging technologies is radically transforming business, disrupting the technological status quo, and reinventing the way people work. On day two of EmTech Next, we’ll delve into the state of technology today and what leaders need to know now in order to prosper and thrive. Transforming 5G Communications. 5G is unlocking the potential of advanced communications,...

Times of crisis require leadership and strategy to navigate the path forward. Day one of EmTech Next digs into topics including: Innovation and Leadership in a Time of Crisis. If innovation is the fuel that drives business, then what is the formula for innovation? In this segment, we will explore how smart leaders develop, adopt, and fund the efforts to foster disruptive technologies. Creating...

We are living in a changed world.Technology and what it means to be digitally resilient are driving the nature of work on every level of the organization as never before. Your key to success as a leader will be making smart, practical decisions about enhancing the technology you use today and embracing the technology poised to restart business. Join us June 8-10 for EmTech Next, MIT Technology...

AI is rapidly transforming the way that companies interact with their customers. MIT Technology Review Insights’ survey of 1,004 business leaders, “The global AI agenda,” found that customer service is the most active department for AI deployment today. By 2022, it will remain the leading area of AI use in companies (say 73% of respondents), followed by sales and marketing (59%), a part of...

Without federal leadership, the hard work of contact tracing is being left to a coalition of states, medics and technology companies like Google and Apple. They can make it happen, but it won't be easy.

There is widespread agreement that the only way to safely reopen the economy is through a massive increase in testing. The US needs to test millions of people per day to effectively track and then contain the covid-19 pandemic. This is a tall order. The country tested only around 210,000 people per day last week, and the pace is not increasing fast enough to get to millions quickly. The...

Starting in the fall of 2016 and continuing into 2018, researchers at Columbia University in Manhattan began collecting nasal swabs from 191 children, teachers, and emergency workers, asking them to record when they sneezed or had sore throats. The point was to create a map of common respiratory viruses and their symptoms, and how long people who recovered stayed immune to each one. The...

The covid-19 pandemic is stretching hospital resources to the breaking point in many countries in the world. It is no surprise that many people hope  AI could speed up patient screening and ease the strain on clinical staff. But a study from Google Health—the first to look at the impact of a deep-learning tool in real clinical settings—reveals that even the most accurate AIs can actually make...

As the coronavirus spread from China across the world earlier this year, two friends in Sydney watched in horror. Milton Zhou is a co-founder of a renewable energy company called the Maoneng Group, which developed some of Australia’s largest solar farms. Saul Khan is a former partner in an energy efficiency consultancy. They met in a Facebook group for startups, where they bonded over a...

The pandemic is turning medics into social media stars, but even the most successful say being a positive influence is difficult.

The frustration in Marc Andreessen’s post on our failure to prepare and respond competently to the coronavirus pandemic is palpable, and his diagnosis is adamant: “a failure of action, and specifically our widespread inability to ‘build.’” Why don’t we have vaccines and medicines, or even masks and ventilators? He writes: “We could have these things but we chose not...

One of Israel’s largest health maintenance organizations is using artificial intelligence to help identify which of the 2.4 million people it covers are most at risk of severe covid-19 complications. Maccabi Healthcare Services says the system—which it developed with AI company Medial EarlySign—has already flagged 2% of its members, amounting to around 40,000 people. Once identified,...

Coronavirus testing in the US is nowhere near where it should be. A recent road map suggested we need to test upwards of 20 million people every day in order to safely reopen the economy (we’re currently running around 150,000 a day). To scale up, we need to move beyond conventional methods—and that might require an entirely different type of test. The gold standard for...

Rizwan Malik had always had an interest in AI. As the lead radiologist at the Royal Bolton Hospital, run by the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), he saw its potential to make his job easier. In his hospital, patients often had to wait six hours or more for a specialist to look at their x-rays. If an emergency room doctor could get an initial reading from an AI-based tool, it could dramatically...

This report is part of “The global AI agenda,” a thought leadership program by MIT Technology Review Insights examining how organizations are using AI today and planning to do so in the future. Featuring a global survey of 1,004 AI experts conducted in January and February 2020, it explores AI adoption, leading use cases, benefits, and challenges, and seeks to understand how organizations...

California plans to significantly ramp up its coronavirus testing and tracing efforts, as the state strives to reach a point where it could relax stay-at-home rules implemented to contain the outbreak. During a press conference on Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state intends to increase testing capacity from about 16,000 per day to 25,000 by April 30, and reach between 60,000 and 80,000...

In this episode of Radio Corona, Gideon Lichfield, editor in chief of MIT Technology Review, will discuss volunteer initiatives that might accelerate the development of a coronavirus vaccine.  Josh Morrison is the Executive Director at Waitlist Zero and part of the team at 1 Day Sooner. Both organizations recruit volunteers to take part of the covid-19 vaccine trials. Ian Haydon is one...