What is AI?
Artificial intelligence is the hottest technology of our time. But what is it? It sounds like a stupid question, but it’s one that’s never been more urgent. MIT Technology Review takes a deep dive into the competing answ…
MIT Technology Review Narrated
Ever wondered what the future of artificial intelligence really holds, or how a quantum computer might actually work? MIT Technology Review Narrated turns the magazine's most significant journalism into an intimate listening experience. Each episode features a single, deeply-reported story from the publication's pages, brought to life not by automated text-to-speech, but by the nuanced delivery of professional voice actors. This approach allows the complexity and texture of the reporting to shine through, whether the topic is the ethics of gene editing, the geopolitics of semiconductors, or the next frontier in climate technology. You'll find yourself immersed in narratives that go beyond headlines, offering the context and analysis needed to understand how technological shifts are reshaping our world. The result is a thoughtful audio companion that makes even the most intricate subjects accessible and compelling. This podcast leverages the decades-long legacy of MIT Technology Review's trusted reporting, ensuring that every story is not only engaging but rigorously fact-checked and insightful. It's for anyone curious about the forces designing our tomorrow, who prefers substance over soundbites and enjoys getting lost in a well-told story. Settle in for a weekly dose of clarity on the ideas that matter, all delivered through the power of spoken narrative.
Episodes
The cost of building the perfect wave
The growing business of surf pools wants to bring the ocean experience inland, making surfing more accessible to communities far from the coasts. These pools can use—and lose—millions upon millions of gallons of water ev…
How generative AI could reinvent what it means to play
Open-world video games are inhabited by vast crowds of computer-controlled characters. These animated people—called NPCs, for “nonplayer characters”—populate the bars, city streets, or space ports of games. They make vir…
The entrepreneur dreaming of a factory of unlimited organs
At any given time, the US organ transplant waiting list is about 100,000 people long. Martine Rothblatt sees a day when an unlimited supply of transplantable organs—and 3D-printed ones—will be readily available, saving c…
Design thinking was supposed to fix the world. Where did it go wrong?
Design thinking suggests that we are all creatives, and we can solve any problem if we empathize hard enough. The methodology was supposed to democratize design, but it may have done the opposite. Where did it go wrong?…
How a tiny Pacific Island became the global capital of cybercrime
Tokelau is a group of three isolated atolls strung out across the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand (of which it’s an official territory) and Hawaii. Its population hovers around 1,400 people. Reaching it requires a boat…
An AI startup made a hyperrealistic deepfake of me that’s so good it’s scary
An AI startup created a hyperrealistic deepfake of MIT Technology Review’s senior AI reporter that was so believable, even she thought it was really her at first. This technology is impressive, to be sure. But it raises…
It’s time to retire the term “user”
Though “user” seems to describe a relationship that is deeply transactional, many of the technological relationships in which a person would be considered a user are actually quite personal. That being the case, is the t…
The search for extraterrestrial life is targeting Jupiter’s icy moon Europa
We've known of Europa’s existence for more than four centuries, but for most of that time, Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon was just a pinprick of light in our telescopes— a bright and curious companion to the solar system’…
Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.
Despite all their runaway success, nobody knows exactly how—or why—large language models work. And that’s a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards control…
