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Your guide to what matters today

05.27

  1. How to Save Your Digital Soul

    With a selfie and some audio, a startup called Oben says, it can make you an avatar that can say—or sing—anything.

    by Rachel Metz

  2. What the U.S. Could Learn from the Dutch on Climate Change

    The Netherlands environmental minister highlights the nation’s offshore wind plans, and their perennial battle with high seas.

    by James Temple

  3. The U.K. Pleads with Congress to Change an Outdated Privacy Law to Help Fight Terrorism

    Updating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which governs law enforcement access to data, would also help U.S. investigators.

    by Mike Orcutt

  4. Drug Is First to Treat Cancer Based on Genetics, Not Location

    A change in how cancer is treated means more people will benefit from immunotherapy.

    by Emily Mullin

  5. Google Now Tracks Your Credit Card Purchases and Connects Them to Its Online Profile of You

    The search giant wants to know how online ads translate into offline sales, but says it is taking steps to ensure users’ privacy isn’t breached.

    by Michael Reilly

What's important in technology and innovation, delivered to you every day.

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Business Impact

Jim Hackett’s Toughest Job Yet: Leading Ford into the Driverless Era

An industry outsider will help Ford navigate an altered car industry and compete with the likes of Google and Uber.
Intelligent Machines

Meet the Most Nimble-Fingered Robot Yet

A dexterous multi-fingered robot practiced using virtual objects in a simulated world, showing how machine learning and the cloud could revolutionize manual work.
Intelligent Machines

The Trump Administration May Soon Have New Powers to Destroy Drone “Threats”

Officials say it shouldn’t be illegal for the government to track and shoot down drones it deems threatening.
Intelligent Machines

He Built the Xbox—Can He Make a Microsoft Product Out of Quantum Computing?

Todd Holmdahl says that starting from behind won’t keep Microsoft from winning the race to commercialize quantum computing.
Intelligent Machines

A Stronger AlphaGo Defeats the World’s Number One Player

Chinese grandmaster Ke Jie tried to outfox DeepMind’s AI player with some unusual moves, but the computer prevailed with surprises of its own.
Intelligent Machines

Curiosity May Be Vital for Truly Smart AI

Making machines inquisitive could improve their ability to perform important complex tasks.
Connectivity

Trump’s Call for a Crackdown on Botnets Is a Long Shot

Complicated technical and political challenges stand in the way of the president’s wish for a “dramatic” reduction in botnet attacks.
Rewriting Life

Microsoft Has a Plan to Add DNA Data Storage to Its Cloud

Tech companies think biology may solve a looming data storage problem.
Intelligent Machines

StarCraft Pros Are Ready to Battle AI

Elite players of the strategy game reveal how they would fight high-level AI bots created by DeepMind, Facebook, and other tech companies.

From Our Current Issue

May/June 2017

Artificial intelligence is a black box that thinks in ways we don’t understand. That’s thrilling and scary.

The Dark Secret at the Heart of AI

No one really knows how the most advanced algorithms do what they do. That could be a problem.

The 3-D Printer That Could Finally Change Manufacturing

Desktop Metal thinks its machines will give designers and manufacturers a practical and affordable way to print metal parts.
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Mainstream Machine Learning, from hype to how-to

Brought to you by Google

Partner C-Brief

IPO Readiness: 5 Questions to Ask When Preparing to Go Public

In partnership with Deloitte

View from the Marketplace

A Field Guide to Digital Transformation

Hybrid IT, edge computing and other advanced technologies can help companies accelerate time to value.

In partnership with Hewlett Packard Enterprise

View from the Marketplace

How Will We Solve Big Energy Challenges?

How will industry leaders, government officials, researchers, entrepreneurs - lift billions of people out of poverty - and continue to advance technological civilization? Jason Pontin, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of MIT Technology Review delivers a striking message of collaboration from the Offshore Technology Conference Statoil Reception in Houston, Texas.

Presented by Statoil

Features

Intelligent Machines

The Dark Secret at the Heart of AI

No one really knows how the most advanced algorithms do what they do. That could be a problem.

by Will Knight

Sustainable Energy

The Growing Case for Geoengineering

As climate change accelerates, a handful of scientists are eager to move ahead with experiments testing ways to counteract warming artificially. Their reasoning: we just might get desperate enough to use this technology one day.
Intelligent Machines

China Is Building a Robot Army of Model Workers

Can China reboot its manufacturing industry—and the global economy—by replacing millions of workers with machines?

10 Breakthrough Technologies 2017

These breakthrough technologies will affect the economy and our politics, improve medicine, or influence our culture. Some are here now; others will take a decade to develop. But you should know about all of them right now.

See the List
Business Impact

Make America Great Again

The president’s proposed cuts to research funding would cripple American innovation. We should be spending more on R&D, not less.

Jason Pontin

Features

Connectivity

Russian Disinformation Technology

Russia’s reinvention of war exploits old techniques for a new century. Open-source citizen investigators are fighting back.

by John Pollock

Rewriting Life

The Painkillers That Could End the Opioid Crisis

Researchers may soon vanquish our pain without causing addiction and other devastating side effects.
Intelligent Machines

Will Machines Eliminate Us?

People who worry that we’re on course to invent dangerously intelligent machines are misunderstanding the state of computer science.

Sustainable Energy

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

All Topics

  1. What the U.S. Could Learn from the Dutch on Climate Change

    The Netherlands environmental minister highlights the nation’s offshore wind plans, and their perennial battle with high seas.
    by James Temple

  2. Why India Keeps Making Grand Claims About Its Energy Future

    India appears to be embracing coal and moving away from coal all at once—what’s going on?
    by Michael Reilly

  3. Electric Cars Could Be Cheaper Than Internal Combustion by 2030

    Tesla gets the headlines, but big battery factories are being built all over the world, driving down prices.
    by Michael Reilly
More from Sustainable Energy

Couldn’t make it to EmTech Digital this year?

Watch videos of today’s leading technologists talking about tomorrow’s advances in artificial intelligence.

Watch video

Rewriting Life

Reprogramming our bodies to make us healthier.

All Topics

  1. How Data Mining Facebook Messages Can Reveal Substance Abusers

    Substance abuse changes people’s patterns of behavior, and this is detectable in their social media messages, say researchers.
    by Emerging Technology from the arXiv

  2. Drug Is First to Treat Cancer Based on Genetics, Not Location

    A change in how cancer is treated means more people will benefit from immunotherapy.
    by Emily Mullin

  3. Microsoft Has a Plan to Add DNA Data Storage to Its Cloud

    Tech companies think biology may solve a looming data storage problem.
    by Antonio Regalado
More from Rewriting Life

Wireless Technology Innovations Lead the Way to a Smartly Connected Future

Sponsored by Qualcomm

  1. The 5G Economy: How 5G will Impact Global Industries, The Economy, and You

    We are now in the early stages of the next technological revolution: the development of a ubiquitous wireless network that will marry data collection and computation with billions of devices. This will provide us with unprecedented insights and abilities that will change what we do and how we do it. This network is called 5G

  2. These Toaster-Oven-Size Radios Will Help Bring 5G to Life

    Within a few years, 5G networks could turbocharge your smartphone. But can they pass the tests cooked up by engineers at an office park in New Jersey?
    by Elizabeth Woyke

  3. 5G Wireless Is Coming, and It’s Going to Blow You Away

    A massive FCC spectrum release—and new advances in wireless technologies—accelerate an era of incredibly fast data.
    by David Talbot
More in Wireless Technology Innovations Lead the Way to a Smartly Connected Future

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50 Smartest Companies 2016

Explore the 50 smartest companies in depth, including the full list and stories that examine the opportunities for small companies going big and the challenges facing big companies fending off the newcomers.

See the Collection

Digital Consequences

Sponsored by IBM

  1. Security Experts Warn Congress That the Internet of Things Could Kill People

    Poorly secured webcams and other Internet-connected devices are already being used as tools for cyberattacks. Can the government prevent this from becoming a catastrophic problem?
    by Mike Orcutt

  2. What Happens When Robots Become Role Models

    Children can find their behavior shaped by robotic companions—so let’s not screw them up.
    by Jamie Condliffe

  3. “The Relentless Pace of Automation”

    Artificial intelligence could dramatically improve the economy and aspects of everyday life, but we need to invent ways to make sure everyone benefits.
    by David Rotman
More in Digital Consequences

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Innovations, Ideas, and Insights

Provided by BBVA

  1. Robotics, Smart Materials, and their Future Impact for Humans

    We are on the cusp of a robotics revolution in which the boundaries between artificial intelligence and biology are blurring.
    by Jonathan Rossiter

  2. The Next Step in Finance: Exponential Banking

    The current technological revolution is accelerating the transformation, not only of industry and business, but also of human lifestyles, culture, and, therefore, society as a whole.
    by Francisco Gonzalez

  3. A Secure Model of IoT with Blockchain

    The Internet of Things is a fast-growing, increasingly complex network of connected devices. This excerpt from an Open Mind article touches on blockchain as a way of securing this new ecosystem.
    by Ahmed Banafa
More in Innovations, Ideas, and Insights