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Seven Must-Read Stories (Week Ending December 20, 2013)

Another chance to catch the most interesting, and important, articles from the previous week on MIT Technology Review.
  1. Why We Will Need Genetically Modified Foods
    Climate change will make it increasingly difficult to feed the world. Biotech crops will have an essential role in ensuring that there’s enough to eat.
  2. Thinking in Silicon
    Microchips modeled on the brain may excel at tasks that baffle today’s computers.
  3. Google’s Latest Robot Acquisition Is the Smartest Yet
    In buying Boston Dynamics, Google has gained an impressive edge in robot locomotion.
  4. Data Mining Exposes Embarrassing Problems for Massive Open Online Courses
    Not only does student participation decline dramatically throughout the new generation of Web-based courses, but the involvement of teachers in online discussions makes it worse.
  5. Too Much Information
    Are we prepared to know the genetic flaws of the unborn?
  6. Biodegradable Batteries to Power Smart Medical Devices
    Prototype batteries that dissolve safely in the body could power ingested devices.
  7. GMOs Are Green
    Genetically modified crops will allow farming practices closer to the ideals of the organic movement.
  8. <

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Geoffrey Hinton tells us why he’s now scared of the tech he helped build

“I have suddenly switched my views on whether these things are going to be more intelligent than us.”

Deep learning pioneer Geoffrey Hinton has quit Google

Hinton will be speaking at EmTech Digital on Wednesday.

Video: Geoffrey Hinton talks about the “existential threat” of AI

Watch Hinton speak with Will Douglas Heaven, MIT Technology Review’s senior editor for AI, at EmTech Digital.

Doctors have performed brain surgery on a fetus in one of the first operations of its kind

A baby girl who developed a life-threatening brain condition was successfully treated before she was born—and is now a healthy seven-week-old.

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