FOIA docs show Palantir has been in talks with the UK’s Ministry of Justice about using its tech to calculate the “reoffending risks” of prisoners (Ben Quinn/The Guardian)

Ben Quinn / The Guardian: FOIA docs show Palantir has been in talks with the UK’s Ministry of Justice about using its tech to calculate the “reoffending risks” of prisoners  —  Exclusive: Rights group expresses concerns as it emerges US spy tech company has been lobbying UK ministers

Ukraine’s drone suppliers are using US-based Auterion’s tech to ramp up production of automated attack drones that are cheap and can evade electronic jamming (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal: Ukraine’s drone suppliers are using US-based Auterion’s tech to ramp up production of automated attack drones that are cheap and can evade electronic jamming  —  Kyiv’s drone suppliers are ramping up production of computer-guided drones that are cheap and can’t be electronically jammed

An interview with Apple’s Tim Millet and Tom Boger on Apple’s chip strategy, making big changes to the Neural Engine after the 2017 transformer paper, and more (Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)

Nandagopal Rajan / The Indian Express: An interview with Apple’s Tim Millet and Tom Boger on Apple’s chip strategy, making big changes to the Neural Engine after the 2017 transformer paper, and more  —  ‘No other platform can touch our power performance per watt.  That’s the tangible benefit to users,’ Tom Boger, Vice President of […]

Many Netflix viewers faced issues while watching the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight and the undercard bouts, including the stream glitching and losing sound (Dominic Patten/Deadline)

Dominic Patten / Deadline: Many Netflix viewers faced issues while watching the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight and the undercard bouts, including the stream glitching and losing sound  —  From nearly the start of the undercard bouts from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the streamer has been freezing, losing sound and proving slow to […]

New emails released as part of Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI show Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever had serious concerns about Sam Altman as early as 2017 (Shakeel Hashim/Transformer)

Shakeel Hashim / Transformer: New emails released as part of Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI show Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever had serious concerns about Sam Altman as early as 2017  —  New emails released as part of Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI reveal that the company’s fondness of drama is hardly new.

One year after Sam Altman was dramatically ousted and reinstated, OpenAI remains dominant as it continues to push ahead on impressive new products (Shirin Ghaffary/Bloomberg)

Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg: One year after Sam Altman was dramatically ousted and reinstated, OpenAI remains dominant as it continues to push ahead on impressive new products  —  The ChatGPT maker is still the company to beat in AI despite going through a turbulent period.  —  One year after Sam Altman’s dramatic …

Palantir stock jumps 9% after announcing a move from the NYSE to the Nasdaq; its stock is up 50%+ since reporting better-than-expected earnings on November 4 (Ari Levy/CNBC)

Ari Levy / CNBC: Palantir stock jumps 9% after announcing a move from the NYSE to the Nasdaq; its stock is up 50%+ since reporting better-than-expected earnings on November 4  —  Palantir shares continued their torrid run on Friday, soaring 11% to a record, after the developer of software for the military announced plans …

Ensuring a durable transition

To fend off the worst impacts of climate change, “we have to decarbonize, and do it even faster,” said William H. Green, director of the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) and Hoyt C. Hottel Professor, MIT Department of Chemical Engineering, at MITEI’s Annual Research Conference. “But how the heck do we actually achieve this goal when […]

J-PAL North America announces new evaluation incubator collaborators from state and local governments

J-PAL North America recently selected government partners for the 2024-25 Leveraging Evaluation and Evidence for Equitable Recovery (LEVER) Evaluation Incubator cohort. Selected collaborators will receive funding and technical assistance to develop or launch a randomized evaluation for one of their programs. These collaborations represent jurisdictions across the United States and demonstrate the growing enthusiasm for evidence-based […]

A profile of Klarna and its CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski as it filed for a US IPO on November 13; investors hope Klarna can achieve a $150B-$200B valuation (Financial Times)

Financial Times: A profile of Klarna and its CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski as it filed for a US IPO on November 13; investors hope Klarna can achieve a $150B-$200B valuation  —  Swedish entrepreneur born to Polish immigrants seeks to list the ‘buy now, pay later’ fintech in New York

Biden admin finalizes its $6.6B CHIPS Act grant to TSMC; money will be disbursed in stages and TSMC is expected to receive at least $1B by the end of 2024 (Yifan Yu/Nikkei Asia)

Yifan Yu / Nikkei Asia: Biden admin finalizes its $6.6B CHIPS Act grant to TSMC; money will be disbursed in stages and TSMC is expected to receive at least $1B by the end of 2024  —  LIMA, Peru — The Biden administration has finalized its $6.6 billion CHIPS Act grant to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. […]

Filing: Samsung plans to buy back about $7.2B of its own stock in stages over the next year, in one of the larger shareholder return programs in its history (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg: Filing: Samsung plans to buy back about $7.2B of its own stock in stages over the next year, in one of the larger shareholder return programs in its history  —  – Samsung’s stock soared as much as almost 9% on Friday  — Investors fear the company is missing out on the AI boom

Thomas E. Kurtz, an American mathematician, computer scientist, and co-inventor of the BASIC programming language with John Kemeny, died at 96 on November 12 (Dag Spicer/CHM)

Dag Spicer / CHM: Thomas E. Kurtz, an American mathematician, computer scientist, and co-inventor of the BASIC programming language with John Kemeny, died at 96 on November 12  —  2023 CHM FELLOW  —  With deep sadness, we say goodbye to computer pioneer Thomas Kurtz.  —  Thomas Eugene Kurtz (Feb. 22 1928-Nov. 12 …

Ilya Lichtenstein is sentenced to five years in prison for conspiring with his wife, Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan, to launder money from the 2016 Bitfinex hack (Sabrina Willmer/Bloomberg)

Sabrina Willmer / Bloomberg: Ilya Lichtenstein is sentenced to five years in prison for conspiring with his wife, Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan, to launder money from the 2016 Bitfinex hack  —  – Ilya Lichtenstein tried to launder proceeds of Bitfinex hack  — His rapper wife ‘Razzlekahn’ is set to be sentenced on Monday

OpenAI makes the ChatGPT desktop app for Windows available to all users, following an October release limited to paying ChatGPT subscribers (Michael Kan/PCMag)

Michael Kan / PCMag: OpenAI makes the ChatGPT desktop app for Windows available to all users, following an October release limited to paying ChatGPT subscribers  —  Previously limited to ChatGPT Plus subscribers, the app opens a ‘companion window’ on your PC, allowing you to easily use the AI chatbot alongside any other Windows programs.

Linzixuan (Rhoda) Zhang wins 2024 Collegiate Inventors Competition

Linzixuan (Rhoda) Zhang, a doctoral candidate in the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering, recently won the 2024 Collegiate Inventors Competition, medaling in both the Graduate and People’s Choice categories for developing materials to stabilize nutrients in food with the goal of improving global health.   The annual competition, organized by the National Inventors Hall of Fame […]

Dancing with currents and waves in the Maldives

Any child who’s spent a morning building sandcastles only to watch the afternoon tide ruin them in minutes knows the ocean always wins. Yet, coastal protection strategies have historically focused on battling the sea — attempting to hold back tides and fighting waves and currents by armoring coastlines with jetties and seawalls and taking sand […]

School of Engineering faculty receive awards in summer 2024

Faculty and researchers receive many external awards throughout the year. The MIT School of Engineering periodically highlights the honors, prizes, and medals won by community members working in academic departments, labs, and centers. Summer 2024 honorees include the following: Polina Anikeeva, the Matoula S. Salapatas Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, professor of brain and […]

Experts expect Trump to relax business cybersecurity rules, drop human rights concerns on spyware, and take an aggressive stance on US adversaries’ cyber armies (Eric Geller/Wired)

Eric Geller / Wired: Experts expect Trump to relax business cybersecurity rules, drop human rights concerns on spyware, and take an aggressive stance on US adversaries’ cyber armies  —  Experts expect Donald Trump’s next administration to relax cybersecurity rules on businesses, abandon concerns around human rights …