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The 8 worst technology failures of 2024

Vertical farms, woke AI, and 23andMe made our annual list of failed tech.

The biggest AI flops of 2024

From chatbots dishing out illegal advice to dodgy AI-generated search results, take a look back over the year’s top AI failures.

These AI Minecraft characters did weirdly human stuff all on their own

Hundreds of LLM-powered AI agents spontaneously made friends, invented jobs, and spread religion.

Google’s new Project Astra could be generative AI’s killer app

Google just launched a ton of new products—including Gemini 2.0, which could power a new world of agents. And we got a first look.

Google DeepMind has a new way to look inside an AI’s “mind”

Autoencoders are letting us peer into the black box of artificial intelligence. They could help us create AI that is better understood, and more easily controlled.

We saw a demo of the new AI system powering Anduril’s vision for war

We’re living through the first drone wars, but AI is poised to change the future of warfare even more drastically.

Google DeepMind’s new AI model is the best yet at weather forecasting

The research represents a shift in how we may predict the weather.

This is where the data to build AI comes from

New findings show how the sources of data are concentrating power in the hands of the most powerful tech companies.

OpenAI’s new defense contract completes its military pivot

A new partnership with Anduril, announced today, will deploy AI on the battlefield. It represents an overhaul of the company’s position in just a year.

Magazine

Our new issue!
January/February 2025

The Innovation issue

Introducing the 2025 10 Breakthrough Technologies! Fast-learning robots, next-gen jet fuel, new HIV protection meds, the largest camera ever built to document the cosmos, and more. Plus: digital twins, high-tech fisheries, and the AI Hype Index.

AI means the end of internet search as we’ve known it

Despite fewer clicks, copyright fights, and sometimes iffy answers, AI could unlock new ways to summon all the world’s knowledge.

Will we ever trust robots?

If most robots still need remote human operators to be safe and effective, why should we welcome them into our homes?

The world’s first industrial-scale plant for green steel promises a cleaner future

The Swedish startup Stegra has raised close to $7 billion to produce zero-emissions steel using green hydrogen starting in 2026.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is ready to transform our understanding of the cosmos

The telescope will catalogue billions of new objects and produce a new map of the entire night sky every three days with the largest digital camera ever made.

Collection

MIT Technology Review’s What’s Next series looks across industries, trends, and technologies to give you a first look at the future.

What’s next for AI in 2025

You already know that agents and small language models are the next big things. Here are five other hot trends you should watch out for this year.

What’s next for our privacy?

The US still has no federal privacy law. But recent enforcement actions against data brokers may offer some new protections for Americans’ personal information.

Why EVs are (mostly) set for solid growth in 2025

What happens in the US, however, will depend a lot on the incoming Trump administration.

What’s next for NASA’s giant moon rocket?

The Space Launch System is facing fresh calls for cancellation, but it still has a key role to play in NASA’s return to the moon.

What’s next for drones

Police drones, rapid deliveries of blood, tech-friendly regulations, and autonomous weapons are all signs that drone technology is changing quickly.

What’s next for MDMA

The FDA is poised to approve the notorious party drug as a therapy. Here’s what it means, and where similar drugs stand in the US. 

What’s next for bird flu vaccines

If we want our vaccine production process to be more robust and faster, we’ll have to stop relying on chicken eggs.

What’s next in chips

How Big Tech, startups, AI devices, and trade wars will transform the way chips are made and the technologies they power.

What’s next for generative video

OpenAI's Sora has raised the bar for AI moviemaking. Here are four things to bear in mind as we wrap our heads around what's coming.

What’s next for offshore wind

New projects and financial headwinds will make 2024 a bumpy year for the industry.

January/February 2025

All the latest from MIT Alumni News, the alumni magazine of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Forging the digital future

As machine learning and generative AI reshape the world, MIT’s Schwarzman College of Computing is integrating these and other advanced computing technologies into classrooms and labs across campus.

More puzzles, less sleep

The annual three-day Mystery Hunt returns to campus January 17. Here’s how last year’s puzzle marathon played out.

The cult of tech

Some technology companies have found manipulative ways to inspire irrational levels of devotion. Should we be worried?

How to build (and rebuild) with glass

MIT engineers have used 3D printing to create reusable glass bricks that withstand as much pressure as concrete blocks.

Four 2024 Nobel winners have MIT ties

The awards honor work on gene regulation and the relationship between political systems and economic growth.

Solar-powered desalination

A new system could make brackish groundwater drinkable at low cost in communities where seawater and grid power are limited.

Smudge before flight

On MIT’s First Nations Launch team, embracing our cultural heritage makes us better engineers.

MIT’s (mostly) secret society

Yale has Skull and Bones. Dartmouth has Sphinx. Harvard has the Porcellian Club. And for more than half a century, MIT had Osiris.

Building adventure

At East Campus, ambitious construction projects draw first-year students to the dorm each fall.

January/February 2025

MIT Alumni News

Read the whole issue of MIT Alumni News, the alumni magazine of Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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Moving generative AI into production

A new software stack for generative AI will prepare organizations for the challenges of moving from AI pilots to AI in production.

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