Business data provides an often untapped well of organizational value. Customer interaction data, supply chain data, operational data, human resource data, financial data, market research data, back-office data—these oft-hidden data sources “hold immense potential for operational insights and value creation,” says Sidharth Mukherjee, chief digital officer of Teleperformance, a global digital...

Form Energy is building iron-based batteries that could store renewable energy on the grid for long stretches, saving up for times when electricity sources such as wind and solar aren’t available. Using iron, one of the most common metals on the planet, could help the company build batteries that are cheap enough to be practical.  Intro  Form Energy is building a new type of...

Sublime Systems has invented a new way to make cement. The startup’s approach employs electrochemistry to dramatically cut emissions, both by tweaking the chemical reactions involved and by eliminating the need for high temperatures. Intro Sublime Systems is reinventing how we make cement—a material that’s a real climate nightmare, accounting for roughly 8% of global greenhouse-gas...

By designing a better battery, BYD has pulled ahead in the global electric vehicle race. Its affordable and versatile cars are making EVs far more accessible, and could ultimately help countries including China to dramatically reduce emissions from transportation. Intro BYD has come a long way from its early days manufacturing mobile phone batteries and cheap gas cars. Now the top EV...

Twelve is converting carbon dioxide emissions into sustainable jet fuel. It recently launched the first commercial-scale production facility for sustainable aviation fuels in the US.  Intro Twelve is commercializing a process that breaks down and reforms carbon dioxide into nearly any chemical that is currently produced by fossil fuels. The company is already using it to make a...

Offshore wind power has tremendous potential to help the world meet its climate goals. Former fossil-fuel company Ørsted is leading the charge to unlock that potential by building massive offshore wind farms in Europe and installing some of the first turbines in US waters. Intro Clean-energy company Ørsted is helping offshore wind reach the gigawatt scales needed to make a dent in...

Fervo Energy is commercializing a geothermal technology that could significantly expand the regions that could tap into the steady, carbon-free energy source, by creating or widening cracks under the surface to allow water to more easily circulate underground. These enhanced geothermal plants could become an increasingly critical source of clean electricity as grids grow greener, helping to...

To prevent catastrophic global warming, we must remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in addition to eliminating fossil fuels. Climeworks is pioneering one of the most promising approaches: direct air capture, in which giant machines suck carbon out of the sky. Intro More than any other company, Climeworks is putting direct air capture (DAC) on the map. Climate models indicate that...

Commonwealth Fusion System’s approach to fusion builds on decades of research—and comes after decades of disappointment within the industry. Yes, the company’s first commercial reactor is still nearly 10 years away, but if it works, the climate benefits will be profound. Intro Commonwealth Fusion Systems hopes to be the first company to take nuclear fusion from the lab to 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. Underground thermal energy networks are becoming crucial to the US’s energy future The news: Thirteen US states are now implementing underground thermal energy networks to reduce buildings’ carbon emissions as part of a…

This story first appeared in China Report, MIT Technology Review’s newsletter about technology in China. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Tuesday. It was probably the highest-stakes mobile game match that’s ever been played. On the evening of September 26, 10 men from China and Malaysia sat on a stage in Hangzhou, China, each staring intensely into a phone. More than...

Thirteen US states are now implementing underground thermal energy networks to reduce buildings’ carbon emissions as part of a nationwide push to adopt cleaner energy sources. Thermal energy networks use pipe loops that connect multiple buildings and provide heating and cooling through water-source heat pumps. Geothermal heat is commonly used in these networks, but it is also possible to...

Artificial intelligence has turbocharged state efforts to crack down on internet freedoms over the past year.  Governments and political actors around the world, in both democracies and autocracies, are using AI to generate texts, images, and video to manipulate public opinion in their favor and to automatically censor critical online content. In a new report released by Freedom House, a...

Advances in imaging technologies are giving physicians unprecedented insights into disease states, but fragmented and siloed information technology systems make it difficult to provide the personalized, coordinated care that patients expect. In the field of medical imaging, health care providers began replacing radiographic films with digital images stored in a picture and archiving...

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. Why Big Tech’s bet on AI assistants is so risky Since the beginning of the generative AI boom, tech companies have been feverishly trying to come up with the killer app for the…

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. Since the beginning of the generative AI boom, tech companies have been feverishly trying to come up with the killer app for the technology. First it was online search, with mixed results. Now it’s AI assistants. Last week, OpenAI, Meta, and...

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. Child online safety laws will actually hurt kids, critics say This summer, the Senate moved two bills dealing with online privacy for children and teens out of committee. We’ve also seen many states…

This article is from The Technocrat, MIT Technology Review’s weekly tech policy newsletter about power, politics, and Silicon Valley. To receive it in your inbox every Friday, sign up here. This summer, the Senate moved two bills dealing with online privacy for children and teens out of committee. Both have been floating around Congress in various forms over the last few years...

Technology Radar is a snapshot of the current technology landscape produced by Thoughtworks twice a year; it’s based on technologies we’ve been using as an organization and communicates our perspective on them. There is always a long list of candidates to be featured for us to work through and discuss, but with each edition that passes, the number of technologies the group discusses grows ever...

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. Elon Musk wants more bandwidth between people and machines. Do we need it? Last week, Elon Musk made the bold assertion that sticking electrodes in people’s heads is going to lead to a…

MIT Technology Review Explains: Let our writers untangle the complex, messy world of technology to help you understand what’s coming next. You can read more from the series here. On September 19, US Food and Drug Administration advisors met to discuss how to move research on artificial wombs from animals into humans. These medical devices are designed to give extremely premature...

This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here. Last week, a post by Elon Musk on X (formerly known as Twitter) caught my eye. The entrepreneur claimed that sticking electrodes in people’s heads is going to lead to a huge increase in the rate of data...

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. Why the dream of fusion power isn’t going away There’s a joke about fusion power that always comes up when people start talking about the technology. It goes like this: Fusion is the…