We’ve known the dangers of antimicrobial resistance for years. What if we used what we learned from covid to tackle it?
As loved ones disappear in their homeland, community members in other countries feel helpless and afraid. Telehealth and social media are helping.
South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang uses AI to promise almost-instant delivery. But speed comes with troubling labor issues—including worker deaths.
Humans have struggled to make truly intelligent machines. Maybe we need to let them get on with it themselves.
The Massachusetts Audubon Society has managed its land as wildlife habitat for years. Here’s how the carbon credits it sold may have fueled climate change.
New research shows that California’s climate policy created up to 39 million carbon credits that aren’t achieving real carbon savings. But companies can buy these forest offsets to justify polluting more anyway.
Evidence is growing that in some people covid infections are producing autoantibodies targeting the body’s organs. If true, it could mean years of lingering sickness and misery for many.
A decade ago, the artificial-intelligence pioneer transformed the field with a major breakthrough. Now he’s working on a new imaginary system named GLOM.
Life online for women is toxic and filled with hate and sexism. Some activists say it’s time to reimagine how the whole thing works.
Streaming platforms gave Indian filmmakers newfound freedoms, which are now under threat from Modi's government.
The company’s AI algorithms gave it an insatiable habit for lies and hate speech. Now the man who built them can't fix the problem.
Computers are ranking the way people look—and the results are influencing the things we do, the posts we see, and the way we think.
Harvard scientists plan to launch a balloon this summer to test the equipment needed for the first geoengineering experiments in the stratosphere.
Across the country, small towns have been left behind. Finding a way to turn things around is crucial if American democracy is to be saved.
AI audits may overlook certain types of bias, and they don’t necessarily verify that a hiring tool picks the best candidates for a job.
New messenger RNA vaccines to fight the coronavirus are based on a technology that could transform medicine. Next up: sickle cell and HIV.
How a team of spies in Mexico got their hands on Russia's space secrets—and tried to change the course of the Cold War.
California’s fires are getting bigger and harder to predict. The only way to tame them may be to remake the landscape itself.
Current privacy laws don’t shield people from the pervasive surveillance of Big Tech. Guerrilla tactics are all we’ve got.
The rise of monopolistic technology companies has made it harder for artists to do their best work. The underlying problems go way beyond art, but they can be fixed with bold action, says William Deresiewicz in this excerpt from his book, "The Death of the Artist".
A large project is underway to disease-proof pigs using CRISPR to change their DNA. Are people next?
Technologists must take responsibility for the toxic ideologies that our data sets and algorithms reflect.
Thousands of renters are being thrown out of their homes by phone and video call.
Residents of the Sundarbans, on the India-Bangladesh border, are trapped between rising sea levels and an indifferent government.
Tech giants dominate research but the line between real breakthrough and product showcase can be fuzzy. Some scientists have had enough.
Attempts to shut down WeChat in the US have worsened division in the Chinese-American community, while downloads of the app have actually spiked.
Whichever man wins, he will have to put a country bruised and battered by the pandemic on a footing to compete with a newly empowered China.
In this excerpt from "The Reasonable Robot: Artificial Intelligence and the Law", Ryan Abbott argues that laws should treat robots more like people.
A machine that could think like a person has been the guiding vision of AI research since the earliest days—and remains its most divisive idea.
As the weather gets colder and people spend more time inside, improving air circulation and filters in buildings will be key to controlling covid-19.
How Anthony Myint and Karen Leibowitz put aside their restaurant’s success to take on a far bigger challenge: rebuilding the entire food system.
It’s time to reverse a century of fire-management policy. That will require sweeping regulatory reforms, and tons of money.
A neuroscientist’s hunt for loneliness could help us better understand the costs of social isolation.
How the growing pro-Trump movement is preying on churchgoers to spread its conspiracy theories.
Digital diagnosis could transform psychiatry by mining your most intimate data for clues. But is the privacy cost worth it?
Forums where people discuss being “gangstalked” are messy and confusing—and they lead some down a dark path.
Studies from the last economic crisis show that green jobs don’t provide immediate economic relief.
Lack of transparency and biased training data mean these tools are not fit for purpose. If we can’t fix them, we should ditch them.
Dfinity wants to allow the creation of apps that can run on the network itself rather than on servers owned by Facebook, Google or Amazon. Can it succeed where others have failed?
The president’s executive order to temporarily suspend H-1B visas exacerbates the US’s precarious position in the global competition for AI talent.
Gene therapy could put an end to future pandemics.
This week’s moves from Amazon, Microsoft, and IBM mark a major milestone for researchers and civil rights advocates in a long and ongoing fight over face recognition in law enforcement.
Avi Schiffmann, the brains behind the web’s most popular coronavirus tracking site, just launched a protest tracking site. How did he do it?
Everyone is trying to avoid covid-19. But finding clear proof for a vaccine will mean hoping some people get it.
Until there’s a treatment or vaccine for covid-19, public health will depend heavily on decisions by business leaders. Technology and systematic thinking can help.
The confluence of investor money, ticking biological clocks, and covid-19 is creating a schism in the fertility industry.
Entrepreneurs and academic gene jockeys are hatching schemes for population-level coronavirus testing.
How to safely ease social distancing while we wait for a covid-19 drug or vaccine.
The first medical reports are in, but there’s no silver bullet for coronavirus infection yet.
Social distancing is here to stay for much more than a few weeks. It will upend our way of life, in some ways forever.
Once enough people get Covid-19, it will stop spreading on its own. But the costs will be devastating.
An in-depth investigation into artificial-intelligence-based attempts to recognize deception.
The AI moonshot was founded in the spirit of transparency. This is the inside story of how competitive pressure eroded that idealism.
Synthetic versions of the deadly virus could help test treatments. But what are the risks when viruses can be synthetized from scratch?
Researchers have successfully bypassed the eyes with a brain implant that allows rudimentary vision.
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Cash is gradually dying out. Will we ever have a digital alternative that offers the same mix of convenience and freedom?
It won’t be easy to update the 47-year-old standard for predicting what fires will do—but it will save lives.
He Jiankui’s manuscript shows how he ignored ethical and scientific norms in creating the gene-edited twins Lulu and Nana.
Finding help can be a struggle for gamers who feel their playing has gotten out of control.
ERIK CARTER A sophisticated new electronic warfare system is being used at the world’s busiest port. But is it sand thieves or the Chinese state behind it?
C4ADS A fog of micro-debris poses major risks to satellites and spaceships—and this test suggests there is a lot more of it than anyone had thought