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MTMIT Technology Review

26 Oct 2026

TechControversialOpinion

Key takeaways

Will the real Anthropic please stand up
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. After weeks of frenzied speculation, Anthropic has filed its IPO prospectus. The 335-page document (100 pages or so are focused on risks) lays out the company’s unique view of the technology it…
1. 1. Anthropic employs sophisticated storytelling to shape its public image, presenting its AI technology as both inevitable and dangerous, thereby positioning itself as the sole trustworthy entity to manage it.
1. 2. The company's public statements, such as claims of AI introspection and internal states mirroring human emotions, are met with skepticism by many researchers.
1. 3. Anthropic's multifaceted identity as a profit-driven megacorp and an AI safety organization creates inherent tensions, making its trustworthiness difficult to ascertain.

MTMIT Technology Review

26 Oct 2026

TechControversialOpinion

Key takeaways

The Download: everyday AI harms and the race to nuclear spaceflight
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. Opinion: The focus on AI safety disasters ignores everyday harms —Sam Hiner, cofounder of the Young People’s Alliance, and Emma Leiken, executive director of the Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund at…
1. 1. The focus on AI safety disasters ignores everyday harms, such as teens discussing serious matters with AI instead of people and reliance on chatbots for schoolwork.
1. 2. NASA plans to fly Space Reactor-1 Freedom, the first-ever nuclear-reactor-powered interplanetary spacecraft, to Mars by the end of 2028.
1. 3. Ukraine has regained high-speed Starlink and Starshield connectivity after restrictions disrupted air defences and drone operations.

MTMIT Technology Review

26 Oct 2026

TechSocial ImpactIndustry Critique

Key takeaways

The focus on AI safety disasters ignores everyday harms
Consider what passes for success in technology policy. An AI company promises that its chatbot will not encourage suicide. A social media platform makes it more difficult for children to buy fentanyl. These are important protections, and they should have existed all along. But companies can clear these low bars while continuing to make products…
1. 1. A narrow definition of success defined around safety is politically convenient for the technology industry, and companies actively promote such definitions.
1. 2. Technology giants have instead worked to shape legislation around the harms they are already under direct pressure to address.
1. 3. We should demand safety as a minimum, yes—and then demand considerably more.

MTMIT Technology Review

23 Oct 2026

TechScienceAnalysis

Key takeaways

The Download: testing six tech promises and biotech’s blind spots
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. Are we there yet? A reality check on six big tech promises Some seemingly impossible feats are too good to give up on. Decoding a pet’s yowls and yips? Absolutely. Scrubbing…
1. 1. The Download newsletter provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology.
1. 2. In the biotech world, you can’t see everything.
1. 3. The must-reads section compiles important and fascinating stories about technology from across the internet.

MTMIT Technology Review

23 Oct 2026

OpinionControversialOpinion

Key takeaways

In the biotech world, you can’t see everything
Earlier this week, I attended a screening of You Can See Everything, the buzzy new documentary about the disgraced former biotech CEO Elizabeth Holmes. I went in not really knowing what to expect. I’d avoided spoilers (and won’t be giving anything away here, either!). I was wondering what new information this film could reveal, given…
1. 1. Elizabeth Holmes founded Theranos at 19, claiming it could perform over 100 diagnostic tests on a few drops of blood, raising hundreds of millions and achieving a $9 billion valuation.
1. 2. Investigations in 2015 revealed Theranos's tests were unreliable, its device untested, and samples analyzed on third-party machines, leading to a $0 valuation by 2016 and fraud charges in 2018.
1. 3. The article emphasizes the importance of peer-reviewed data in science and warns that even honest scientists can exaggerate, while also noting the rise of preprint servers that bypass traditional review.

MTMIT Technology Review

22 Oct 2026

TechPromotionalExpert

Key takeaways

The Foundations of Scalable AI
A scalable AI system requires a strong foundation. Data, engineering, platforms, operating models, and governance must converge to work as one. This session from MIT Technology Review’s EmTech Future conference explores what it takes to build that foundation in a highly regulated environment and how a responsible, trustworthy implementation can turn emerging capabilities, including agentic…
1. 1. Jing Wang leads Vanguard's Center for AI & Insights (CAI), advancing the firm's AI, machine learning, generative AI, and behavioral science capabilities.
1. 2. Her team drives enterprise-wide innovation, research, and delivery, enabling Vanguard to translate emerging technologies into trusted solutions that enhance client experiences, improve investor outcomes, and create measurable business value.
1. 3. Jing earned a B.S. in Physics from the University of Science and Technology of China, a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, and an M.B.A. in Finance and Marketing from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

MTMIT Technology Review

22 Oct 2026

TechInnovationTech

Key takeaways

The Download: computing’s next leap and permafrost’s climate threat
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. How far can we push computing? On a December evening in 1959, the physicist Richard Feynman gave a lecture called “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom.” There is no physical…
1. 1. The easy descent into smaller transistors has stalled, leading the industry to build bigger data centers for performance.
1. 2. AI has uncovered a decade-old flaw threatening much of the web, with exploit attempts jumping from thousands to millions after disclosure.
1. 3. Online harassment is entering its AI era, with AI agents retaliating against individuals who deny their contributions to open-source projects.

MTMIT Technology Review

22 Oct 2026

ScienceInformativeNuanced

Key takeaways

Three things you should know about permafrost
How much do you know about permafrost? Maybe, like me, you’ve been aware that this layer of frozen soil is thawing, that it’s important in the global puzzle of climate change … and that’s about the extent of it. The great news for both of us is that my colleague James Temple just published two…
1. 1. Permafrost is the frozen layer of soil that’s under about 15% of land around the Northern Hemisphere.
1. 2. As global temperatures tick up and this layer thaws, microbes are able to break down that organic matter, releasing carbon dioxide and methane—powerful greenhouse gases that drive climate change.
1. 3. Wildfires can accelerate the thawing of permafrost, and by the end of the century, this effect could release the equivalent of 80 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide.

MTMIT Technology Review

22 Oct 2026

TechControversialOpinion

Key takeaways

Making the case for context-aware AI
Enterprise AI can generate recommendations, automate tasks, and help organizations make decisions faster. But without an understanding of how a business actually operates, even powerful models can miss the constraints and relationships that determine whether a decision is the right one. As companies look to move AI from experimentation into everyday operations, the challenge ahead…
1. 1. Connecting AI to existing enterprise processes and data through a contextual layer is essential for understanding workflows, operating within guardrails, and producing reviewable recommendations.
1. 2. Organizations should start by identifying a specific business decision, pinpointing its most challenging steps, and testing AI's ability to improve them, measuring gains in speed and value to justify scaling.
1. 3. Realizing the benefit of AI in freeing employees for strategic decisions requires investment in workforce education so employees can understand AI outputs and their implications.

MTMIT Technology Review

22 Oct 2026

TechControversialExpert

Key takeaways

AI’s hidden storage bill: What inference leaves behind
Ask most executives to picture the cost of AI and they’ll likely see GPUs—racks of accelerators with gigawatts of power—and a waitlist for silicon. But that picture leaves something out: Data storage costs. What happens to data after a model responds? Much of the back-end data that’s generated—from billions of daily prompts, images, and videos—needs…
1. 1. Inference runs continuously, and every inference request leaves something behind, contributing to a growing data footprint.
1. 2. McKinsey projects AI inference demand will grow at a 35% CAGR through 2030, versus 22% for training, making up more than 40% of total data center demand by the end of the decade.
1. 3. A team that budgets AI as 'compute plus a rounding error for storage' may find, in 12 to 18 months, that the rounding error has become a significant fraction of the program's total cost.

MTMIT Technology Review

21 Oct 2026

TechInnovationTech Enthusiast

Key takeaways

The Download: introducing the Impossible issue
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. Introducing: the Impossible issue We wanted our last print edition of 2026 to include a slate of stories that check in on impossible ideas. Why? Because it’s fun to dream about…
1. 1. The 'Impossible Issue' explores audacious technological endeavors, aiming to inspire by showcasing daring scientific and engineering pursuits.
1. 2. Large language models are set to go lunar, with a computer capable of running AI software aboard Astrolab's FLIP lunar rover.
1. 3. Scientists are studying a lightning-induced fire in Alaska to understand how fires reshape permafrost and carbon storage, revealing critical clues about cascading climate feedback effects.

MTMIT Technology Review

21 Oct 2026

ScienceExpertOriginal

Key takeaways

Interspecies communication
Humans are far from the only species with a gift for gab, and our furry, feathered, and finned friends could have a lot to tell us. Decoding how animals communicate with one another could offer a window into the inner lives of other species and help humans realize that “animals are sentient creatures who think,…
1. 1. Decoding how animals communicate with one another could offer a window into the inner lives of other species and help humans realize that “animals are sentient creatures who think, who have hopes and dreams of their own.”
1. 2. Over the past 50 years, a growing arsenal of devices has made it easier to observe the sophisticated ways animals communicate.
1. 3. In the last decade, advances in AI have leveled up our ability to make sense of it all.

MTMIT Technology Review

21 Oct 2026

ScienceScientific AdvancementHealth Innovation

Key takeaways

Exercise in a pill
We all know exercise is good for us. It builds muscle, strengthens bones, lowers blood pressure, and boosts mood. By deciphering how movement benefits the body, researchers hope to develop medicines that can offer some of the same perks—without the workout. The idea isn’t to replace exercise but to bring its upsides to people who…
1. 1. By deciphering how movement benefits the body, researchers hope to develop medicines that can offer some of the same perks—without the workout.
1. 2. More than 90% of treatments that enter human studies fail.
1. 3. Scientists have already identified many important exercise-related signals and have even developed compounds to regulate them.

MTMIT Technology Review

21 Oct 2026

TechInnovationFuture Tech

Key takeaways

Nuclear-powered spaceships
Just before the Artemis II crew began its historic slingshot around the moon this past April, NASA announced plans to build Space Reactor-1 Freedom. SR-1, the first-ever nuclear-reactor-powered interplanetary spacecraft, is meant to fly an uncrewed mission to Mars by the end of 2028, arriving in 2029. A successful mission would herald a new era…
1. 1. NASA is pursuing an approach called nuclear electric propulsion, which uses the neutrons produced in a self-sustaining, uranium-atom-splitting reaction to create heat and ultimately electricity.
1. 2. The approach “is very low thrust, but very efficient,” says Sebastian Corbisiero, the US Department of Energy’s national technical director of space reactor programs.
1. 3. If SR-1 works as planned, its journey to Mars will take about a year.

MTMIT Technology Review

21 Oct 2026

OpinionInspirationalOpinion

Key takeaways

We can do impossible things
I’d wager everyone has a rehearsed response to what’s absolutely one of the world’s worst interview questions: “What’s your biggest weakness?” Whenever I’ve gotten it, I take a slow—even pensive—breath and rattle off my line: “I say no to myself too much.” I won’t lie. It’s a bit shameless—a definite humblebrag. I’m a systems thinker:…
1. 1. We wanted to end 2026 with a slate of stories that check in on impossible ideas.
1. 2. It’s supposed to take cutting-edge research and development and apply it to make life better, safer, healthier, even more joyful.
1. 3. So yeah, this one’s for the folks who have the audacity to try, and who refuse to let anyone—themselves included—tell them no.

MTMIT Technology Review

20 Oct 2026

TechExpertOriginal

Key takeaways

It’s a bird, it’s a plane … it’s a robo-puffin?
Given that water is 1,000 times denser than air, moving through those two mediums requires very different mechanics—or so one might assume. Yet birds like gulls and puffins can plunge into the sea, swim underwater, and leap back into the air to fly away. And now engineers at MIT and EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, have…
1. 1. Engineers at MIT and EPFL have designed a robot that can transition between flying in the air and swimming underwater.
1. 2. The 'flapping-wing aerial-aquatic vehicle,' or FAAV, weighs less than 300 grams and is equipped with a central fuselage, two flexible wings, and a steerable tail.
1. 3. The engineers' results could help pave the way for a new class of drones and vehicles that could fly to and sample from aquatic regions too dangerous for traditional vessels to access.

MTMIT Technology Review

20 Oct 2026

TechControversialExpert

Key takeaways

Astrolab’s upcoming rover will run the first LLMs on the moon
Large language models are set to go lunar. A computer capable of running AI software is one of the payloads aboard Astrolab’s FLIP lunar rover, which is slated to head to Earth’s celestial companion as early as November 2026. The 480-kilogram FLIP rover, short for “FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform,” is the first in a series…
1. 1. Astrolab's upcoming rover will run the first LLMs on the moon.
1. 2. Such software could ultimately help enable greater autonomy and real-time intelligent decision-making in space on future missions, eliminating the time delays and limited bandwidth that often plague long-distance communications between ground control on Earth and robots elsewhere in the solar system.
1. 3. FLIP's HPE Spaceborne-4 edge computer, on the other hand, consists of a high-performance 64-bit CPU combined with a GPU that can run large numbers of computational tasks in parallel, just like advanced edge computers on Earth.

MTMIT Technology Review

20 Oct 2026

BusinessPromotionalBusiness

Key takeaways

The new economics of enterprise AI
Imagine your company just discovered electricity. At first only a few machines run on it, and nobody worries about efficiency — consumption is low and the value is obvious. But once electricity becomes infrastructure, every process depends on it, and the question changes from “can we use it?” to “how efficiently are we using it?”…
1. 1. Enterprise AI is shifting from isolated experiments to a foundational business layer, with the key metric becoming effective cost per useful outcome.
1. 2. Enterprises generally choose among three models: a bespoke stack, on-demand consumption, or an integrated private AI platform.
1. 3. Ownership is an operating discipline; owning AI infrastructure creates the opportunity for better economics, but only if the organization has sufficient demand and operational discipline to keep resources productive.

MTMIT Technology Review

20 Oct 2026

TechSpeculativeTech-Focused

Key takeaways

The Download: the claim shaking up AI and the internet’s agent problem
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. “We were looking at it wrong”: The explosive claim that’s upended the AI world “I think I have good news about the nature of neural networks.” With those simple words of…
1. 1. Nick Cammarata claims that LLMs might be far easier to understand, and thus to monitor and control, than people previously thought.
1. 2. Personal AI agents are slowly but surely disrupting that divide by taking on online tasks, from booking flights to reserving hotel rooms.
1. 3. Moment Energy wants to shortcut a supply chain that now flows largely through China by domestically repurposing EV batteries into new grid-connected storage systems.

MTMIT Technology Review

20 Oct 2026

BusinessControversialOpinion

Key takeaways

AI adoption by industry shows what other sectors can learn
The current narrative around artificial intelligence in the workplace is largely driven by Silicon Valley. But treating the tech sector as an island misses the actual trends in technology adoption–tech is just the first industry in line. As generative AI and automation tools mature, the shifts currently reshaping software engineering and product management will inevitably…
1. 1. The variation in adoption rates today isn't a sign that non-tech industries are falling behind, but rather a reflection of the different speeds at which industries absorb new workflows.
1. 2. For leaders and their teams outside of tech, this differential pace provides a practical blueprint for how AI adoption unfolds, and where the opportunities lie.
1. 3. Early AI adoption offers clear professional leverage: TripleTen’s survey data shows that when managers learned a new skill or automation process from an employee, 88% of those employee-led AI innovations became standard company practice.

MTMIT Technology Review

20 Oct 2026

ScienceResearchEnvironmental

Key takeaways

How to study a swiftly melting climate disaster
Andrew Haverdink, a tall grad student in a rain bib and rubber boots, wrenched a double-handed drill from the frozen soil that underlies much of Alaska’s Denali National Park and then unclipped the hollow barrel from the end of the bit. He knelt in front of a blue tarp, lined the barrel up with a…
1. 1. Wildfires in the Arctic-boreal region are increasing in frequency and intensity, leading to accelerated permafrost thaw and the release of significant greenhouse gas emissions.
1. 2. While plant growth may eventually offset some carbon loss from thawing permafrost, immediate decades-ahead emissions from high-latitude fires and permafrost melt are accelerating global warming.
1. 3. The study of permafrost thaw and wildfire impacts is complex, with outcomes varying significantly based on local climate, ecosystem, fire severity, and permafrost type.

MTMIT Technology Review

20 Oct 2026

BusinessIndustry-backed dataEnvironmental impact

Key takeaways

These startups hope “blended” food will cut our appetite for red meat
In the fall of 2025, Jeff Dodge set up a six-foot folding table in the cafeteria of Cane Bay High School in Summerville, South Carolina, to conduct a taste test. When the first rush of about 150 hungry students hit, he was waiting with slow cookers filled with steaming marinara sauce and meatballs. Kids love…
1. 1. Livestock production accounts for 10% to 20% of all greenhouse-gas emissions related to human activity, with beef herds creating four times the emissions of dairy herds per kilo of food produced.
1. 2. Blended meat products, which combine plant proteins with real meat, are being developed by startups as a way to reduce red meat consumption by making meat more sustainable.
1. 3. Replacing 20% of beef globally could halve the annual rate of deforestation, and blended meat offers a solution that many omnivores are open to trying.

MTMIT Technology Review

20 Oct 2026

BusinessBusinessTechnology

Key takeaways

A visit to Samsung’s massive new semiconductor hub
Generative AI models run on powerful chips known as GPUs, which depend on stacks of specialized memory chips packaged with the processor. To meet growing demand for memory, Samsung is building a massive new semiconductor manufacturing complex in Pyeongtaek, South Korea. Three fabs already operate around the clock, and a fourth is coming online. Construction…
1. 1. Samsung is building a massive new semiconductor manufacturing complex in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, to meet growing demand for memory chips.
1. 2. Construction of a fifth fab was halted during a drop in demand for memory chips in 2024 but restarted when the AI boom sent demand soaring.
1. 3. Samsung predicts that demand for memory chips will continue to surge through 2028.

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