The Download

What's up in emerging technology

Sept. 11-14, 2018

MIT Media Lab

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Intelligent Machines

This company embeds microchips in its employees, and they love it

Last August, 50 employees at Three Square Market got RFID chips in their hands. Now 80 have them.
Intelligent Machines

The “neuropolitics” consultants who hack voters’ brains

These experts say they can divine political preferences you can’t express from signals you don’t know you’re producing.
Connectivity

How 5G connectivity and new technology could pave the way for self-driving cars

C-V2X enables vehicles to communicate, which should reduce accidents and aid autonomous driving.
Connectivity

Four big targets in the cyber battle over the US ballot box

Here’s how hackers could strike the 2018 midterm elections.
Connectivity

Hackers are out to jeopardize your vote

Cyberattacks on the 2016 US election caused states to bolster the defenses of their voting systems. It hasn’t been enough, says the University of Michigan’s Alex Halderman.
Intelligent Machines

The World Economic Forum warns that AI may destabilize the financial system

Increased use of machine learning and cloud services could make the financial world more vulnerable.
Intelligent Machines

Why AI researchers shouldn’t turn their backs on the military

The author of a new book on autonomous weapons says scientists working on artificial intelligence need to do more to prevent the technology from being weaponized.
Connectivity

How social media took us from Tahrir Square to Donald Trump

To understand how digital technologies went from instruments for spreading democracy to weapons for attacking it, you have to look beyond the technologies themselves.
Intelligent Machines

Tim Hwang’s FiscalNote is revolutionizing Washington lobbying with big data

FiscalNote takes the intuition out of politics. Does it take the democracy out, too?

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

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More videos

Coffee-fetching robots 02:08

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

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

Communicating with robots 01:35

Intelligent Machines

Coffee-fetching robots 02:08

One job interns may be glad to relinquish to robots is the notorious coffee run. Manuela Veloso discusses coffee-fetching bots at EmTech Next 2018.

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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.

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Sustainable Energy

Can we sustainably provide food, water, and energy to a growing population during a climate crisis?

All Topics

  1. The $2.5 trillion reason we can’t rely on batteries to clean up the grid

    Fluctuating solar and wind power require lots of energy storage, and lithium-ion batteries seem like the obvious choice—but they are far too expensive to play a major role.
    by James Temple

  2. How one climate scientist combats threats and misinformation from chemtrail conspiracists

    Harvard geoengineering researcher David Keith explains when to feed the trolls and when not to.
    by James Temple

  3. Climate change could drive tens of thousands of additional suicides in North America

    Stanford and Berkeley scientists found that suicides, as well as depressive language on Twitter, rise as temperatures do.
    by James Temple
More from Sustainable Energy

Features

Intelligent Machines

Who needs democracy when you have data?

Here’s how China rules using data, AI, and internet surveillance.

by Christina Larson

Photo of two surveillance cameras next to a portrait of Mao Zedong.
Science Fiction

Noon in the antilibrary

Science fiction: What happens when fake news is everywhere?
Intelligent Machines

Fake America great again

Inside the race to catch the worryingly real fakes that can be made using artificial intelligence.
Briefing Paper

How to Unlock the Power of IoT with Real-Time Monitoring

In association with AppDynamics

Executive Briefing

Cloud Development: The Key to Rapid Innovation

In partnership with Oracle

Global Survey Report

Unlock Data Intelligence with AI

In partnership with Pure Storage

Executive Briefing

The Artificial Intelligence Imperative

In partnership with Pure Storage

SPONSORED COLLECTION

Innovations, Ideas, and Insights

Provided by BBVA

  1. SPONSORED

    From the age of perplexity to the era of opportunities

    Finance for Growth
    by Francisco Gonzalez

  2. 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

  3. 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
More in Innovations, Ideas, and Insights

Rewriting Life

Reprogramming our bodies to make us healthier.

All Topics

  1. US scientist who edited human embryos with CRISPR responds to critics

    Can we safely fix the DNA of human embryos in a lab dish?
    by Antonio Regalado

  2. Data-mining medieval text reveals medically bioactive ingredients

    Medieval apothecaries used recipes with significant antibacterial properties, researchers say.
    by Emerging Technology from the arXiv

  3. Million-person genetic study finds gene patterns linked to how long people stay in school

    Researchers explore genetic “scores” that may predict educational success.
    by Antonio Regalado
More from Rewriting Life