The Download: the cancer vaccine renaissance, and working towards a decarbonized future

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Cancer vaccines are having a renaissance Last week, Moderna and Merck launched a large clinical trial in the UK of a promising new cancer therapy: a personalized vaccine that targets a specific set…

3 May 2024

Cancer vaccines are having a renaissance

This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here.  Last week, Moderna and Merck launched a large clinical trial in the UK of a promising new cancer therapy: a personalized vaccine that targets a specific set of…

3 May 2024

The Download: Sam Altman on AI’s killer function, and the problem with ethanol

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Sam Altman says helpful agents are poised to become AI’s killer function Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has a vision for how AI tools will become enmeshed in our daily lives.  During a…

2 May 2024

Three takeaways about the current state of batteries

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. Batteries are on my mind this week. (Aren’t they always?) But I’ve got two extra reasons to be thinking about them today.  First, there’s a new special report from the International Energy…

2 May 2024

Why new ethanol aviation fuel tax subsidies aren’t a clear climate win

Eliminating carbon pollution from aviation is one of the most challenging parts of the climate puzzle, simply because large commercial airlines are too heavy and need too much power during takeoff for today’s batteries to do the job.  But one way that companies and governments are striving to make some progress is through the use…

1 May 2024

Sam Altman says helpful agents are poised to become AI’s killer function

A number of moments from my brief sit-down with Sam Altman brought the OpenAI CEO’s worldview into clearer focus. The first was when he pointed to my iPhone SE (the one with the home button that’s mostly hated) and said, “That’s the best iPhone.” More revealing, though, was the vision he sketched for how AI…

1 May 2024

The Download: mysterious radio energy from outer space, and banning TikTok

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Inside the quest to map the universe with mysterious bursts of radio energy When our universe was less than half as old as it is today, a burst of energy that could cook…

1 May 2024

The depressing truth about TikTok’s impending ban

This story first appeared in China Report, MIT Technology Review’s newsletter about technology in China. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Tuesday. Allow me to indulge in a little reflection this week. Last week, the divest-or-ban TikTok bill was passed in Congress and signed into law. Four years ago, when I was just starting…

1 May 2024

Inside the quest to map the universe with mysterious bursts of radio energy

When our universe was less than half as old as it is today, a burst of energy that could cook a sun’s worth of popcorn shot out from somewhere amid a compact group of galaxies. Some 8 billion years later, radio waves from that burst reached Earth and were captured by a sophisticated low-frequency radio…

1 May 2024

Roundtables: Inside the Next Era of AI and Hardware

Recorded on April 30, 2024 Inside the Next Era of AI and Hardware Speakers: James O’Donnell, AI reporter, and Charlotte Jee, News editor Hear first-hand from our AI reporter, James O’Donnell, as he walks our news editor Charlotte Jee through the latest goings-on in his beat, from rapid advances in robotics to autonomous military drones,…

30 April 2024