Life probably can’t exist on quite as many planets as we once thought
Life probably can’t exist on quite as many planets as we once thought The habitable zone around other stars has been defined as the region where liquid water can exist on a planet’s surface, but it takes more than water to support complex life. A team of astronomers has calculated what that means for where we should go looking. When the Kepler Space Observatory launched in 2009, it began to find p
This alarmingly simple hack could let anyone tinker with the climate
The scenario would go something like this. It’s the year 2051. A decade of drought, crop failure, and famine has killed millions across East Africa, sparking violent clashes over food and water. Similar scenes of death and devastation are playing out in other parts of the globe. In response, an environmental group, or maybe a humanitarian one, or perhaps just some individual with a huge social-med
Computer science reveals why this headline is not funny
To uncover the secrets of humor, researchers crowdsourced the task of turning satirical sentences from The Onion into serious ones. Humor seems to be an inherent part of the human condition. Our ability to smile, laugh, and giggle plays an important role in social situations; that piques the interest of sociologists and anthropologists. But you have to “get” a joke before you can laugh, so humor i
This is how AI bias really happens—and why it’s so hard to fix
Over the past few months, we’ve documented how the vast majority of AI’s applications today are based on the category of algorithms known as deep learning, and how deep-learning algorithms find patterns in data. We’ve also covered how these technologies affect people’s lives: how they can perpetuate injustice in hiring, retail, and security and may already be doing so in the criminal legal system.
An AI that writes convincing prose risks mass-producing fake news
Here’s some breaking fake news … Russia has declared war on the United States after Donald Trump accidentally fired a missile in the air. Russia said it had “identified the missile’s trajectory and will take necessary measures to ensure the security of the Russian population and the country’s strategic nuclear forces.” The White House said it was “extremely concerned by the Russian violation” of a
Explainer: What is a quantum computer?
This is the first in a series of explainers on quantum technology. The other two are on quantum communication and post-quantum cryptography. A quantum computer harnesses some of the almost-mystical phenomena of quantum mechanics to deliver huge leaps forward in processing power. Quantum machines promise to outstrip even the most capable of today’s—and tomorrow’s—supercomputers. They won’t wipe out
New Model of Evolution Finally Reveals How Cooperation Evolves
New Model of Evolution Finally Reveals How Cooperation Evolves By treating evolution as a thermodynamic process, theorists have solved one the great problems in biology. One of the great unanswered question in biology is why organisms have evolved to cooperate. The long-term benefits of cooperation are clear—look at the extraordinary structures that termites build, for example, or the complex soci
Deep Learning Creates Earth-like Terrain by Studying NASA Satellite Images
Deep Learning Creates Earth-like Terrain by Studying NASA Satellite Images The landscapes in video games and artificial worlds can be generated in two ways. The first is to hand-craft the terrain and populate it with appropriate colors and textures such as rocks, grass, trees, snow and so on. This produces high-quality results but is expensive because of the human labor involved. The second method
2019
We asked Gates to choose this year’s list of inventions that will change the world for the better. I was honored when MIT Technology Review invited me to be the first guest curator of its 10 Breakthrough Technologies. Narrowing down the list was difficult. I wanted to choose things that not only will create headlines in 2019 but captured this moment in technological history—which got me thinking a
Japan plans to hack into millions of its citizens’ connected devices
Japan plans to hack into millions of its citizens’ connected devices The Japanese government will try to hack into internet-connected devices in homes and offices around the country starting from next month as part of efforts to improve cybersecurity, NHK World-Japan reports. First of its kind: The program, which could last for up to five years, was approved on Friday. It will be conducted by Japa
The real reason America is scared of Huawei: internet-connected everything
The real reason America is scared of Huawei: internet-connected everything Five things you need to know about 5G, the next generation of wireless tech that’s fueling tensions between the US and China. There was a time when the world’s two great superpowers were obsessed with nuclear weapons technology. Today the flashpoint is between the US and China, and it involves the wireless technology that p
We analyzed 16,625 papers to figure out where AI is headed next
We analyzed 16,625 papers to figure out where AI is headed next Our study of 25 years of artificial-intelligence research suggests the era of deep learning may come to an end. Almost everything you hear about artificial intelligence today is thanks to deep learning. This category of algorithms works by using statistics to find patterns in data, and it has proved immensely powerful in mimicking hum
AI is sending people to jail—and getting it wrong
Using historical data to train risk assessment tools could mean that machines are copying the mistakes of the past. AI might not seem to have a huge personal impact if your most frequent brush with machine-learning algorithms is through Facebook’s news feed or Google’s search rankings. But at the Data for Black Lives conference last weekend, technologists, legal experts, and community activists sn
Three charts show how China’s AI industry is propped up by three companies
Three charts show how China’s AI industry is propped up by three companies Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent, the three Chinese tech giants loosely equivalent to Google, Amazon, and Facebook, are not just developing and deploying AI themselves. Their deep pockets have also funded a broad range of AI companies, focused on everything from smart cities to finance to education. Last week, Chinese media outl
China vs. the US: Who wins and who loses
[In] anything that requires a lot of capital commitment, and that’s in line with the political objectives, you can expect China to move forward. So, for example, in quantum computing and maybe even microchips. How much does China depend on the US for finance, talent, and IP? China is not that dependent on the US for financing, and it is exporting talent to the US. In terms of intellectual property
What is machine learning?
Machine-learning algorithms are responsible for the vast majority of the artificial intelligence advancements and applications you hear about. (For more background, check out our first flowchart on "What is AI?" here.) What is the definition of machine learning? Machine-learning algorithms use statistics to find patterns in massive* amounts of data. And data, here, encompasses a lot of things—numb
The 6 Biggest Technology Failures of 2015
Welcome to MIT Technology Review’s second annual list of top tech flops. Without further preamble, here are the technologies we thought did the least for humanity in 2015. Hoverboards It was the hot 2015 gift item that went up in flames. Literally. Hoverboards, the two-wheeled, self-balancing scooters, are like Segways without the handle, packed with a circuit board and two AC motors inside the wh
The US and China are in a quantum arms race that will transform warfare
The US and China are in a quantum arms race that will transform warfare Radar that can spot stealth aircraft and other quantum innovations could give their militaries a strategic edge. In the 1970s, at the height of the Cold War, American military planners began to worry about the threat to US warplanes posed by new, radar-guided missile defenses in the USSR and other nations. In response, enginee
The Top Technology Failures of 2014
What do the latest technologies to flop, fizzle, and flame out tell us about innovation? All successful technologies are alike, but every failed technology flops in its own way. Success means a technology solves a problem, whether it’s installed on a billion smartphones or used by a few scientists carrying out specialized work. But many—maybe most—technologies do not succeed, typically because the
Cookbooks, Wikipedia, and auto-generated Spanglish: The quirky ways AI researchers gather data
Cookbooks, Wikipedia, and auto-generated Spanglish: The quirky ways AI researchers gather data Here are four of the most creative data collection methods used by experts at the leading annual conference on natural-language processing. Data is the oil that fuels AI development, and it gives us many of the advances we take for granted: YouTube captions, Spotify music recommendations, those creepy ad
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