The dodo bird was big, flightless, and pretty good eating. All that helps explain why it went extinct around 1662, just 150 years after European sailing ships found Mauritius, the island in the Indian Ocean where the bird once lived. Now a US biotechnology company says it plans to bring the dodo back into existence. It’s the third species picked by Colossal Biosciences, of Austin, Texas,...

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. We have enough materials to power the world with renewable energy The news: Powering the world with renewable energy will take a lot of raw materials. The good news is, when it comes…

Powering the world with renewable energy will take a lot of raw materials. The good news is, when it comes to aluminum, steel, and rare-earth metals, there’s plenty to go around, according to a new analysis. In the 2015 Paris Agreement, world leaders set a goal to keep global warming under 1.5 °C, and reaching that target will require building a lot of new infrastructure. Even in the most...

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. In the last week there has been a lot of talk about whether journalists or copywriters could or should be replaced by AI. Personally, I’m not worried. Here’s why. So far, newsrooms have pursued two very different approaches to integrating the...

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Mass-market military drones have changed the way wars are fought When the United States first fired a missile from an armed Predator drone at suspected Al Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan in November 2001,…

Mass-market military drones are one of MIT Technology Review’s 10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2023. Explore the rest of the list here. When the United States first fired a missile from an armed Predator drone at suspected Al Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan on November 14, 2001, it was clear that warfare had permanently changed. During the…

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. A watermark for chatbots can spot text written by an AI What’s happened: A new method could help us to spot AI-generated texts. Watermarking buries hidden patterns in the text that are invisible…

Hidden patterns purposely buried in AI-generated texts could help identify them as such, allowing us to tell whether the words we’re reading are written by a human or not. These “watermarks” are invisible to the human eye but let computers detect that the text probably comes from an AI system. If embedded in large language models, they could help prevent some of the problems that these...

This article is from The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, sign up here. Egg freezing is on my mind. At 36, I’m at an age when many of my friends have had babies, and the few who haven’t are weighing up their options. If they plan on having children at some point in the future, should they be freezing their eggs...

A Roomba recorded a woman on the toilet. How did screenshots end up on social media? This episode we go behind the scenes of an MIT Technology Review investigation that uncovered how sensitive photos taken by an AI powered vacuum were leaked and landed on the internet. Reporting: We meet: Credits: This episode was reported…

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. People are already using ChatGPT to create workout plans When I opened the email telling me I’d been accepted to run the London Marathon, I felt elated. And then terrified. Barely six months…

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. As a climate reporter, I sometimes hesitate to admit this, but I feel it’s time that I came clean on something … I love flying. It’s not even just about traveling and seeing…

When I opened the email telling me I’d been accepted to run the London Marathon, I felt elated. And then terrified. Barely six months on from my last marathon, I knew how dedicated I’d have to be to keep running day after day, week after week, month after month, through rain, cold, tiredness, grumpiness, and hangovers.  What no one warns you is that the marathon is the easy part....

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. An ALS patient set a record for communicating via a brain implant The news: Eight years ago, a patient lost her power of speech because of ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, which causes…

China Report is MIT Technology Review’s newsletter about technology developments in China. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Tuesday. This past Sunday was the Lunar New Year, the most important holiday for Chinese and several other Asian cultures. It’s difficult to celebrate this holiday with China Report readers, as I originally planned, when I…

Eight years ago, a patient lost her power of speech because of ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, which causes progressive paralysis. She can still make sounds, but her words have become unintelligible, leaving her reliant on a writing board or iPad to communicate. Now, after volunteering to receive a brain implant, the woman has been able to rapidly communicate phrases like “I don’t own my...

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. A few pieces of good news on climate change (and a reality check) When it comes to the climate, the picture can look bleak. Emissions of the greenhouse gasses that cause climate change…

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. Oh man, it’s brutal out there. One by one, the world’s richest tech companies have announced massive layoffs. Just last week, Alphabet announced it was laying off 12,000 people. There have been bruising rounds of layoffs at Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and...

RISC-V is one of MIT Technology Review’s 10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2023. Explore the rest of the list here. Python, Java, C++, R. In the seven decades or so since the computer was invented, humans have devised many programming languages—largely mishmashes of English words and mathematical symbols—to command transistors to do our bidding.  But the silicon switches in your...

When it comes to climate, the picture can look bleak.  Emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change reached a new peak in 2022, according to early estimates. And climate disasters seem to be hitting at a breakneck pace. In 2022, the world experienced record heat waves in China and Europe, and devastating floods in Pakistan killed over 1,000 people and displaced...

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. How the James Webb Space Telescope broke the universe When the James Webb Space Telescope sent its first images back to Earth in July last year, researchers gathered excitedly to pore over them.…

The James Webb Space Telescope is one of MIT Technology Review’s 10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2023. Explore the rest of the list here. Natalie Batalha was itching for data from the James Webb Space Telescope. It was a few months after the telescope had reached its final orbit, and her group at the University of…

Tech Review Explains: Let our writers untangle the complex, messy world of technology to help you understand what’s coming next. You can read more here. An American entrepreneur’s crude solar geoengineering effort in Baja California, first reported by MIT Technology Review in late December, has prompted widespread criticism—and now, the Mexican government plans to ban related...

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Hydrogen-powered planes take off with startup’s test flight The news: In a record trip for low-carbon aviation, a startup has completed a test flight of a 19-seat aircraft powered in part by hydrogen…