The Download

What's up in emerging technology

March 25-26, 2019

San Francisco, CA

Artificial intelligence is here. Own what happens next.

It's difficult to discern facts from fiction in the rapidly shifting landscape of AI. What do you need to know to stay ahead of the competition? Get the insight and intelligence you need at EmTech Digital.

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Business Impact

Inside Shenzhen’s race to outdo Silicon Valley

Shenzhen flooded the world with cheap gadgets. Can it now become what Silicon Valley never did—a global hub of innovation, entrepreneurship, and manufacturing?
Business Impact

Help us pick the young innovators who are changing our world

Nominations for our 2019 list of 35 Innovators Under 35 are now open.
Connectivity

A short drive across the Pacific

Self-driving cars need the US and China to just get along already.
Intelligent Machines

The Reunion: a new science-fiction story about surveillance in China

Technology is making people unhinged and violent. Can an algorithm stop them?
Intelligent Machines

These incredibly realistic fake faces show how algorithms can now mess with us

A new approach to AI fakery can generate incredibly realistic faces, with whatever characteristics you’d like.
Connectivity

It’s time for a Bill of Data Rights

As the US Senate debates a new bill, a data-governance expert presents a plan to protect liberty and freedom in the digital age.
Business Impact

At least 15 central banks are serious about getting into digital currency

Digital cash may soon start replacing the physical kind.
Intelligent Machines

China has never had a real chip industry. Making AI chips could change that.

The country has struggled for decades to build a competitive semiconductor industry. In making specialized AI chips, though, it’s got a head start.
Connectivity

Ethereum thinks it can change the world. It’s running out of time to prove it.

The blockchain system has daunting technical problems to fix. But first, its disciples need to figure out how to govern themselves.

From Our Current Issue

MIT Technology Review: November/December 2018

Medicine is becoming hyper-personalized, hyper-accurate… and hyper-unequal.

Your genome, on demand

How your detailed genetic profile can predict your risk of diseases and improve your health.

Photo illustration of a doll's face filled with colorful beads each containing a letter of a nucleotide. A black, unmarked bead appears in a set of tweezers above the face.

DNA databases are too white. This man aims to fix that.

Carlos D. Bustamante’s hunt for genetic variations between populations should help us better understand and treat disease.

Photo of Carlos D. Bustamante
View from the Marketplace

Professional services firms see huge potential in machine learning

B2B marketers share strong convictions about how data analytics can help them understand—and reach—their customers. The more benefits they have witnessed, the greater possibilities they see.

In association with Google

View from the Marketplace

Technology innovations: The future of AI and blockchain

A survey conducted at the EmTech MIT conference, September 11-14, 2018, and online, yielded some interesting responses on how technology is changing our lives.

In association with EY

View from the Marketplace

Digital transformation sparks innovation in networking

The network needs to keep pace with the demands of exciting new technologies like containers and microservices, according to presenters at a recent industry event. The first step in that process is changing the culture.

In association with VMware

View from the Marketplace

For data-savvy marketers, there’s a new keyword: Intent

As more companies look to machine learning for insights, marketers need to use new tools and technology to engage potential customers at the right time and place.

In association with Google

35 Innovators Under 35

Better gene editing. Smarter AI. Cheaper solar cells. Stretchable electronics. This year’s list of 35 Innovators Under 35 will give you a sense of what’s coming next—and what kinds of people are making it happen.

See the Collection

10 Breakthrough Technologies 2018

Dueling neural networks. Artificial embryos. AI in the cloud. Welcome to our annual list of the 10 technology advances we think will shape the way we work and live now and for years to come.

See the Collection

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AI in Industry: Intelligent Health Care 29:27

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

Robots as nurses' assistants 00:36

AI in Industry: Intelligent Health Care 29:27

MIT professor Dina Katabi is building a gadget that can sit in one spot and track everything from breathing to walking, no wearables required.

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Rewriting Life

Reprogramming our bodies to make us healthier.

All Topics

  1. We finally know how fish swim so fast

    Physicists have argued for 50 years over which of two theories explains how fish produce thrust. Now a computer simulation has provided the answer.
    by Emerging Technology from the arXiv

  2. Does dark matter really cause skin cancer? Have a guess.

    A far-out theory proposed earlier this year falls apart under closer examination, says a new study.
    by Emerging Technology from the arXiv

  3. Years before CRISPR babies, this man was the first to edit human embryos

    In 2015, an unknown Chinese scientist edited the DNA of human embryos. It was a step on an inexorable path to designer babies.
    by Antonio Regalado
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SPONSORED COLLECTION

Innovations, Ideas, and Insights

Provided by BBVA

  1. SPONSORED

    The crisis of social reproduction and the end of work

    High-income societies are facing the rise of precarious employment.
    by Helen Hester and Nick Snircek

  2. SPONSORED

    Advanced tech, but growth slow and unequal: paradoxes and policies

    Slowing productivity growth in major economies amid seemingly booming technology presents a paradox.
    by Zia Qureshi

  3. SPONSORED

    From the age of perplexity to the era of opportunities

    Finance for Growth
    by Francisco Gonzalez
More in Innovations, Ideas, and Insights

Features

Rewriting Life

Years before CRISPR babies, this man was the first to edit human embryos

In 2015, an unknown Chinese scientist edited the DNA of human embryos. It was a step on an inexorable path to designer babies.

by Antonio Regalado

Intelligent Machines

One of the fathers of AI is worried about its future

Yoshua Bengio wants to stop talk of an AI arms race and make the technology more accessible to the developing world.

Photo of Yoshua Bengio
Intelligent Machines

The US military is testing stratospheric balloons that ride the wind so they never have to come down

A sensor that can spot the wind direction from miles away will let DARPA’s surveillance balloons hover at the very edge of space in one spot indefinitely.

Photo of Loon Ballon flying above mountains

Intelligent Machines

Artificial intelligence and robots are transforming how we work and live.

All Topics

  1. Should a self-driving car kill the baby or the grandma? Depends on where you’re from.

    The infamous “trolley problem” was put to millions of people in a global study, revealing how much ethics diverge across cultures.
    by Karen Hao

  2. Female black journalists and politicians get sent an abusive tweet every 30 seconds

    Machine learning reveals a disturbing level of harassment, abuse, and trolling aimed at women and minorities on Twitter.
    by Will Knight

  3. The Reunion: a new science-fiction story about surveillance in China

    Technology is making people unhinged and violent. Can an algorithm stop them?
    by Chen Qiufan, translated by Emily Jin and Ken Liu
More from Intelligent Machines