As she was looking for a camp last summer, Yabesra Ewnetu, who’d just finished eighth grade, found a reference to MIT’s FutureMakers Create-a-thon. Ewnetu had heard that it’s hard to detect bias in artificial intelligence because AI algorithms are so complex, but this didn’t make sense to her. “I was like, well, we’re the ones […]
Persuading Your Team to Embrace Change
Two techniques based on social science.
How Political Polarization Is Changing Work
A conversation with Harvard’s Julia Minson and Francesca Gino about how to stop colleagues’ differences of opinion from devolving into conflict.
We Need Better Carbon Accounting. Here’s How to Get There.
The current Greenhouse Gas Protocol has a major loophole when it comes to how companies measure the carbon impact of their suppliers.
DuckDuckGo’s Privacy Browser Finally Lands on Desktop
DuckDuckGo started out as a private search engine. Now its web browser is debuting on Macs to rival Chrome, Safari, Edge, and Brave.
This Countertop Ice Cream Machine Churns Out Tasty Frozen Treats
The Ninja Creami produces ice cream, gelato, and sherbet of store-bought quality, but it doesn’t leave much room for creativity.
Tunic Is the Game of the Year That No One’s Talking About
Let’s not be too hasty to crown Elden Ring. This Zelda-inspired indie title is a worthy front-runner.
A look at Stripe’s $925M Frontier initiative, which funds carbon-removal startups and has received funding from Alphabet, Shopify, Meta, and others (Akshat Rathi/Bloomberg)
Akshat Rathi / Bloomberg: A look at Stripe’s $925M Frontier initiative, which funds carbon-removal startups and has received funding from Alphabet, Shopify, Meta, and others — Some of the world’s largest companies will spend $925 million buying offsets from startups that remove carbon dioxide from the air.
A profile of a16z’s Chris Dixon, whose early bets on crypto startups, including Coinbase, Uniswap, and Dapper Labs, have made him Forbes’ top VC in the space (Alex Konrad/Forbes)
Alex Konrad / Forbes: A profile of a16z’s Chris Dixon, whose early bets on crypto startups, including Coinbase, Uniswap, and Dapper Labs, have made him Forbes’ top VC in the space — The Andreessen Horowitz partner is the new no. 1 on Forbes’ 21st annual Midas List of top venture investors, thanks to savvy bets […]
IAB: US digital ad spend rose 35% YoY to $189B in 2021, the largest gain since 2006; 10 publishers and platforms took 78.6% of the total, up from 78.1% in 2020 (Megan Graham/Wall Street Journal)
Megan Graham / Wall Street Journal: IAB: US digital ad spend rose 35% YoY to $189B in 2021, the largest gain since 2006; 10 publishers and platforms took 78.6% of the total, up from 78.1% in 2020 — Advertising has followed shopping online during the pandemic at a breathless rate. The ad spend was concentrated—78.6% […]
Driving a human-machine collaboration
Here’s the scenario: A driver falls asleep at the wheel. But their car is equipped with a dashboard camera that detects the driver’s eye condition, activating a safety system that promptly guides the vehicle to a secure halt. That’s not just an idea on the drawing board. The system, called Guardian, is being refined at […]
The State of Globalization in 2022
Its collapse has been vastly overstated, according to an analysis of international flows of trade, capital, information, and people.
Sources: Meituan plans to lay off ~10%-20% of staff from its core business units after announcing that it added a net 17K jobs from July 2021 to mid-March 2022 (Coco Feng/South China Morning Post)
Coco Feng / South China Morning Post: Sources: Meituan plans to lay off ~10%-20% of staff from its core business units after announcing that it added a net 17K jobs from July 2021 to mid-March 2022 — Up to 20 per cent of Meituan’s staff in core business units, including food and grocery deliveries have […]
Cloud services provider Sungard files for bankruptcy with $424M in secured debt, its second bankruptcy filing in three years (Maria Chutchian/Reuters)
Maria Chutchian / Reuters: Cloud services provider Sungard files for bankruptcy with $424M in secured debt, its second bankruptcy filing in three years — (Reuters) – Technology company Sungard Availability Services returned to bankruptcy on Monday about three years after wrapping up its prior Chapter 11 case.
Meta rolls out a test for a handful of creators to sell virtual items and effects in Horizon Worlds, with Meta taking a 25% cut after a platform fee in Horizon (The Verge)
The Verge: Meta rolls out a test for a handful of creators to sell virtual items and effects in Horizon Worlds, with Meta taking a 25% cut after a platform fee in Horizon — Horizon Worlds will take a 25 percent cut of any sale after app store fees — Meta is testing new features […]
Robotic fingertip has human-like sense of touch
A 3D-printed robotic fingertip contains structures that allow it to touch and feel surfaces using the same principles seen in human skin
J-PAL launches the Egypt Impact Lab to improve lives through evidence-informed policymaking
A new collaboration between the Middle East and North Africa regional office of MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab and Egypt’s Ministry of Planning and Economic Development aims to strengthen the effectiveness of Egypt’s poverty alleviation policies through rigorous evaluation and innovation. The new initiative, the Egypt Impact Lab, will connect academics with government […]
Manipulating the future
As robots evolve, society’s collective imagination forever ponders what else robots can do, with recent fascinations coming to life as self-driving cars or robots that can walk and interact with objects as humans do. These sophisticated systems are powered by advances in deep learning that triggered breakthroughs in robotic perception, so that robots today have […]
Engineered bacteria could help protect “good” gut microbes from antibiotics
Antibiotics are life-saving drugs, but they can also harm the beneficial microbes that live in the human gut. Following antibiotic treatment, some patients are at risk of developing inflammation or opportunistic infections such as Clostridiodes difficile. Indiscriminate use of antibiotics on gut microbes can also contribute to the spread of resistance to the drugs. In […]
The Essentials: Persuading People
Establish your authority, find out who values what, and use curiosity to win over holdouts.
How Cofounders Can Prevent Their Relationship from Derailing
Five strategies to sustain a healthy partnership.
When Crisis Management Becomes Conflict Management
We’re in a new psychological phase of the pandemic, which is manifesting in increased confrontation on many teams.
Wahoo Gives the Roller Bike Trainer a Smarter, Safer Update
A new twist on the traditional indoor cycling trainer combines computerized control with simple safety improvements.
Analysts Warn Anti-Satellite Weapons Have Evolved Beyond Missiles
A pair of new reports point to a proliferating array of technologies that could be used to attack spacecraft.
Tech Bans Hurt Russian Dissidents More than They Help Ukraine
To win PR points, Western tech companies are indiscriminately endangering people’s health and livelihoods.
Sources: China has approved the first batch of video game licenses since its freeze in July; it is unclear if games from Tencent and NetEase were approved (Zheping Huang/Bloomberg)
Zheping Huang / Bloomberg: Sources: China has approved the first batch of video game licenses since its freeze in July; it is unclear if games from Tencent and NetEase were approved — China has approved the first batch of new video game licenses since July, people familiar with the matter said …
Source: Apple will face an additional EU antitrust charge in the coming weeks, in an investigation into music streaming triggered by a complaint from Spotify (Foo Yun Chee/Reuters)
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters: Source: Apple will face an additional EU antitrust charge in the coming weeks, in an investigation into music streaming triggered by a complaint from Spotify — Apple (AAPL.O) faces an additional EU antitrust charge in the coming weeks in an investigation triggered by a complaint from Spotify …
Sources and leaked docs: senior EU officials were targeted last year with Israeli spyware, including Belgian statesman Didier Reynders; NSO denies involvement (Reuters)
Reuters: Sources and leaked docs: senior EU officials were targeted last year with Israeli spyware, including Belgian statesman Didier Reynders; NSO denies involvement — Senior officials at the European Commission were targeted last year with spy software designed by an Israeli surveillance firm …
Origami-inspired robot can deliver drugs at the site they are needed
A robot with thin magnetic plates at each end can be steered and compressed using external magnetic fields so it releases an accurate dose of medicine
Russia and Ukraine are both weaponising mobile phones to track troops
Mobile phones ping signals to nearby communications towers, allowing both Ukrainian and Russian soldiers to track the movement of opposition forces
MIT announces five flagship projects in first-ever Climate Grand Challenges competition
MIT today announced the five flagship projects selected in its first-ever Climate Grand Challenges competition. These multiyear projects will define a dynamic research agenda focused on unraveling some of the toughest unsolved climate problems and bringing high-impact, science-based solutions to the world on an accelerated basis. Representing the most promising concepts to emerge from the […]
Why Employers Should Fund Debt-Free Education Programs
Traditional tuition-reimbursement policies often don’t work for the employees who could benefit the most — hurting employers and employees alike.
Want a Better PC? Try Building Your Own
Assembling a computer yourself is a good way to learn how they work.
A look at the regulations cities like New York, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Helsinki, and others are adopting as they increasingly use AI to provide public services (Jackie Snow/Wall Street Journal)
Jackie Snow / Wall Street Journal: A look at the regulations cities like New York, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Helsinki, and others are adopting as they increasingly use AI to provide public services — A look at what New York, London, Barcelona and other places are doing to establish regulations that other cities—and countries—may want to copy
Sources: beta versions of iOS 16, codenamed Sydney, are “chock-full” of references to Apple’s mixed-reality headset and its interactions with the iPhone (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: Sources: beta versions of iOS 16, codenamed Sydney, are “chock-full” of references to Apple’s mixed-reality headset and its interactions with the iPhone — Apple is set to hold its developers conference virtually for the third year in a row. Expect major iOS and watchOS upgrades, and perhaps some new Macs.
Coinbase “temporarily” disables the option to buy cryptocurrencies with the Unified Payments Interface in India; source: the issue is crypto is not legal tender (Apoorva Mittal/The Economic Times)
Apoorva Mittal / The Economic Times: Coinbase “temporarily” disables the option to buy cryptocurrencies with the Unified Payments Interface in India; source: the issue is crypto is not legal tender — US Co reached out to NPCI following regulator’s clarification on no UPI for cryptocurrencies in India …
How to Adjust the Text Size on Your Smartphone
Give your eyes a break and make sure you can actually see what you’re reading.
How to Use Universal Control With Your Mac and iPad
You can finally use MacOS and iPadOS simultaneously with one keyboard and mouse.
The Best Coffee Grinders to Amp Up Your Morning Brew
Get more joy from your java. These conical-burr, flat-burr, and bladed machines let you enjoy freshly ground whole beans in every cup.
A hacking group called NB65 claims it is using modified versions of Conti’s leaked ransomware to attack Russian entities, including the space agency Roscosmos (Lawrence Abrams/BleepingComputer)
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer: A hacking group called NB65 claims it is using modified versions of Conti’s leaked ransomware to attack Russian entities, including the space agency Roscosmos — A hacking group used the Conti’s leaked ransomware source code to create their own ransomware to use in cyberattacks against Russian organizations.
A profile of Father Paolo Benanti, an engineer and ethicist who advises theologians and priests, including Pope Francis, on moral and ethical issues in AI (Madhumita Murgia/Financial Times)
Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times: A profile of Father Paolo Benanti, an engineer and ethicist who advises theologians and priests, including Pope Francis, on moral and ethical issues in AI — On February 26, two days after war broke out in Europe for the first time in decades, Father Paolo Benanti walked briskly through the […]
Elon Musk tweets that all Twitter Blue subscribers “should get an authentication checkmark” and suggests the service should be ad-free with a lower price (Axios)
Axios: Elon Musk tweets that all Twitter Blue subscribers “should get an authentication checkmark” and suggests the service should be ad-free with a lower price — Elon Musk suggested in a series of tweets Saturday night changes to the premium Twitter Blue service …
Architecture isn’t just for humans anymore
In a rural valley of northwestern Nevada, home to stretches of wetlands, sagebrush-grassland, and dozens of natural springs, is a 3,800-acre parcel of off-grid land known as Fly Ranch. Owned by Burning Man, the community that yearly transforms the neighboring playa into a colorful free-wheeling temporary city, Fly Ranch is part of a long-term project […]
Our 6 Favorite Electric Kick Scooters
These WIRED-tested escooters will help you scoot scoot scoot around town.
Twitter reverts a change that left blank spaces in place of deleted embedded tweets and says it is exploring “different options” (Emma Roth/The Verge)
Emma Roth / The Verge: Twitter reverts a change that left blank spaces in place of deleted embedded tweets and says it is exploring “different options” — Twitter says it’s exploring ‘different options’ — Twitter has confirmed it reversed a change that altered the appearance of deleted tweets embedded …
Meta’s civil rights team made progress in its first year, including removing sensitive ad targeting categories, but experts say it needs to be empowered to act (Issie Lapowsky/Protocol)
Issie Lapowsky / Protocol: Meta’s civil rights team made progress in its first year, including removing sensitive ad targeting categories, but experts say it needs to be empowered to act — Like everyone, Roy Austin Jr. saw President Trump’s Facebook post that went up in the summer of 2020 — the one where he threatened […]
Sources: Meta chose a Qualcomm chip for the second version of its Ray-Ban smartglasses, after struggling to develop its own custom chip codenamed Brasilia (The Information)
The Information: Sources: Meta chose a Qualcomm chip for the second version of its Ray-Ban smartglasses, after struggling to develop its own custom chip codenamed Brasilia — In late 2021, a team of Meta Platforms employees building a key chip for the second version of Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses was notified …
As Climate Fears Mount, Some Are Relocating Within the US
A small but growing number of Americans are moving to New England or the Appalachian Mountains, which are seen as safe havens from climate change.
Pokémon Crystal Unlocked My Trans Girl Heart
When the world wishes you didn’t exist, sometimes you find your true self in the most unassuming places.
How to Spot Content Marketing in Search Results
When you search for reviews and guides, you want to make sure you’re not reading someone with a vested interest in you buying their product.