The Download
What's up in emerging technology
Facebook is creating an internet satellite
SpaceX has entered a new stage of reusability
Waymo racks up a million autonomous miles in one month
Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Twitter will now let you transfer data between their services
State-sponsored trolling is rampant throughout the world—including the US
Sept. 11-14, 2018
MIT Media Lab
Stay ahead of where tech, business, and culture converge.
Join the conversation and meet the next wave of disruptors at EmTech MIT.
Register Now
From Our Current Issue
Intelligent Machines
How to tell if you’re talking to a bot
The five best ways to detect fake social-media accounts.
Connectivity
This man’s quest to understand memory starts with obsessive bodycam recording and brain-wave tracking
By-products include striking short films that speed up and slow down along in response to body signals.
Connectivity
Meet Oasis Labs, the blockchain startup Silicon Valley is buzzing about
Combining software with something the company calls “trusted hardware” will vastly expand what smart contracts can do.
Intelligent Machines
Facebook’s AI tourist finds its way around New York City by asking for help from another algorithm
AI algorithms can learn to navigate in the real world using language—and that might help make chatbots and voice assistants smarter.
Sustainable Energy
California’s plan to integrate the West Coast grid is a great idea—that could easily backfire
The state leading the clean-energy charge could wind up importing coal power from Wyoming.
Intelligent Machines
The US may have just pulled even with China in the race to build supercomputing’s next big thing
The two countries are vying to create an exascale computer that could lead to significant advances in many scientific fields.
Connectivity
Bitcoin’s inherent economics could keep it from ever being very important
A new analysis shows how the cost of securing Bitcoin will constrain its growth.
Sustainable Energy
We still have no idea how to eliminate more than a quarter of energy emissions
Air travel, shipping, and manufacturing are huge sources of carbon that we lack good options for addressing.
Watch Video
More videos
Robots as nurses' assistants 00:36
Next-Generation Robots Need Your Help 27:36
Access to broadband is as important as access to water and electricity 01:15
We shouldn't preserve "willy nilly" the cost of production 01:00
Coffee-fetching robots 02:08
Automating things on wheels 00:50
Humans versus machines: Chopin edition 02:06
Teaching systems to dance 01:44
3-D printed potato chips 01:15
Communicating with robots 01:35
Intelligent Machines
Robots as nurses' assistants 00:36
These robots are trained to work with nurses to help make decisions in the best interests of patients. Julie Shah, Associate Professor in the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, demonstrates.
Intelligent Machines
Artificial intelligence and robots are transforming how we work and live.
-
Google wants to make programming quantum computers easier
Its new open-source software will help developers experiment with the machines, including Google’s own super-powerful quantum processor.
by Martin Giles
-
How to tell if you’re talking to a bot
The five best ways to detect fake social-media accounts.
by Will Knight
-
Evolutionary algorithm outperforms deep-learning machines at video games
Neural networks have garnered all the headlines, but a much more powerful approach is waiting in the wings.
by Emerging Technology from the arXiv
Features
Intelligent Machines
Google wants to make programming quantum computers easier
Its new open-source software will help developers experiment with the machines, including Google’s own super-powerful quantum processor.
-
SPONSORED
From the age of perplexity to the era of opportunities
Finance for Growth
by Francisco Gonzalez
-
SPONSORED
Undoing Aging with Molecular and Cellular Damage Repair
Since the dawn of medicine, aging has been doctors’ foremost challenge.
by Aubrey D. N. J. de Grey
-
SPONSORED
Human Legacies When Robots Rule the Earth
Machines have been displacing humans on job tasks for several centuries, and for seventy years many of these machines have been controlled by computers.
by Robin Hanson
Connectivity
What it means to be constantly connected with each other and vast sources of information.
-
IBM thinks blockchains can help reduce carbon emissions
It’s turning carbon credits into crypto-tokens—part of a scheme to create a massive marketplace of novel digital assets.
by Mike Orcutt
-
This man’s quest to understand memory starts with obsessive bodycam recording and brain-wave tracking
By-products include striking short films that speed up and slow down along in response to body signals.
by Rachel Metz
-
Forget about VR in the living room; this summer it’s on waterslides and in arcades
VR technology hasn’t been a hit with consumers, so companies are taking it everywhere from specially built arenas to airports.
by Rachel Metz
