Alex W. Palmer / New York Times: How ByteDance and TikTok, which owe their existence to intermingled Western and Chinese ideas, capital, and people, became entangled in the US-China rift  —  A Chinese app conquered the planet — and now the U.S. is threatening to shut it down.  Can the world’s biggest virality machine survive?

Jean Eaglesham / Wall Street Journal: The SEC’s Paul Munter says the regulator is increasing scrutiny of audit firms working with crypto companies, warning investors to be “very wary” of some claims  —  Regulator concerned about cryptocurrency companies overstating audit firms’ narrow reports

It started with a childhood memory. Or maybe it was a dream. MIT Senior Lecturer Ken Urban couldn’t get the image of a face in a window out of his head. Eventually he developed the vision into a rough idea for a plot. Last year, he shared an early treatment with Jay Scheib, MIT’s Class […]

How accurate are over-the-counter swabs? Does your insurance cover them? We have answers.

Before there was SBF, there was another “ethical crusader” who learned the same hard truths about the technology of trust.

These accessories might not cure your anxiety or insomnia, but they can feel like a hug when you really need one.

Ian King / Bloomberg: Micron reports Q1 revenue down ~47% YoY to $4.09B and plans to reduce its workforce by ~10% over the next year; Micron had 48,000 employees in September 2022  —  Micron Technology Inc., the largest US maker of memory chips, gave a lackluster revenue outlook for the current period …

Wall Street Journal: Sources detail steps Netflix may take to reduce US password sharing, like charging account owners an extra sharing fee at just below the $6.99 ad-supported tier  —  Putting a stop to the practice without alienating customers will be a challenge  —  The end of password sharing is coming to Netflix soon …

Tonya Riley / CyberScoop: The FCC proposes a record-breaking ~$300M fine against an auto warranty scam robocall campaign that made 5.1B+ calls to 550M+ US phone numbers in Q1 2021  —  The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday proposed a record-breaking $300 million fine against an auto warranty robocall campaign …

A hydrogel mesh made from vinegar, baking soda, glycerol and alcohol sucks up water three times as well as products made from paper or cloth

“We have barely scratched the surface of the moiré quantum matter universe,” said Pablo Jarillo-Herrero at the 2022 Mildred S. Dresselhaus Lecture. The Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics at MIT, Jarillo-Herrero is at the forefront of the scientific exploration into moiré quantum systems, where correlated physics, superconductivity, and other phases of matter can […]

Nestled in the foothills of Bogotá, the University of the Andes (Uniandes) draws students across Colombia who are looking to study engineering. Today, those graduates are better equipped than ever, thanks to a comprehensive redesign of the university’s undergraduate engineering curriculum, inspired in part by its relationship with MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel World Education Lab […]

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which measures changes in blood flow throughout the brain, has been used over the past couple of decades for a variety of applications, including “functional anatomy” — a way of determining which brain areas are switched on when a person carries out a particular task. fMRI has been used to […]

Sponsor content from ALIBABA.

The story of how a product was discovered can change the level of consumers’ interest.

The question is not whether to engage, but how to do so.

In Cyclettes, author and designer Tree Abraham takes readers on an illustrated ride through her life.

High costs stopped commercial fleets from embracing EVs. But now that the numbers finally add up, it makes sense to switch.

Sidelined for too long, research into this vital aspect of health for people with ovaries will pick up pace in 2023—and it could see some big breakthroughs.

Hannah Murphy / Financial Times: In a Twitter Space, Elon Musk says he expects Twitter to “be okay” next year after cost cutting, claiming the company was on course to spend ~$5B in 2023  —  Social network’s owner offers snapshot of dire finances to explain huge lay-offs since $44bn takeover

Juli Clover / MacRumors: Kuo: Apple plans to cancel or postpone iPhone SE 4 mass production, set for 2024, due to lower than expected shipments of its middle- and lower-tier iPhones  —  Apple will cancel or postpone mass production for the planned 2024 iPhone SE 4, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said today in a series […]

Jay Peters / The Verge: George Hotz, aka geohot, who joined Twitter on November 18 after Elon Musk’s “extremely hardcore” pledge, resigned, saying he could not make “any real impact”  —  George Hotz, known for being the first person to carrier-unlock an iPhone and jailbreaking the PS3 …

Videos sent in Twitter direct messages can theoretically be viewed by anyone, a weakness that could be leveraged by hackers, but the company isn’t planning on fixing this flaw

Luqiao Liu was the kind of kid who would rather take his toys apart to see how they worked than play with them the way they were intended. Curiosity has been a driving force throughout his life, and it led him to MIT, where Liu is a newly tenured associate professor in the Department of […]

What if the U.S. placed a tax on robots? The concept has been publicly discussed by policy analysts, scholars, and Bill Gates (who favors the notion). Because robots can replace jobs, the idea goes, a stiff tax on them would give firms incentive to help retain workers, while also compensating for a dropoff in payroll […]

Matador’s Flatpak dry bags will protect your gear from rain, even when you least expect it.

Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover is a case study in destruction. It doesn’t have to be this way.

When it rains, it pours. Here are our picks for cold, wet days—plus expert tips on deciphering product specs.

Brian Fung / CNN: SEC deposition: in 2017, Zuckerberg considered saying Facebook was investigating “organizations like Cambridge Analytica”, before advisers suggested against it  —  Mark Zuckerberg considered disclosing in 2017 that Facebook (FB) was investigating “organizations like Cambridge Analytica” …

James Reddick / The Record: US prosecutors say two men conspired with Russian hackers to tamper with JFK airport’s taxi queuing software, allegedly letting drivers cut the line for a fee  —  Two Queens men have been arrested and are facing up to 10 years in prison on charges that they conspired with Russian hackers […]

Mishaal Rahman / Esper Blog: Android and Google Chrome will soon no longer trust certificates from TrustCor Systems, following Firefox and Edge, over alleged ties to a US defense contractor  —  The world’s biggest tech companies have lost confidence in one of the Internet’s behind-the-scenes gatekeepers.

Research firm DeepMind has built an AI to optimise cooling systems in buildings. In tests, it reduced energy usage by around 10 per cent

The IEEE recently announced the annual winners of their 2023 prestigious medals and technical awards, and a number of MIT faculty and alumni have been honored. Rodney Brooks, Panasonic Professor of Robotics Emeritus of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, was awarded the IEEE Founders Medal “for leadership in research and commercialization of […]

A conversation with Hollywood legend Ron Howard about talent, success, and taking chances.

Here’s what the best-performing ones do differently.

Plus strategies for driving transformative growth in 2023.

People won’t be saying “It’s conscious!” about an AI in 2023—no matter how smart it may seem.

From the stylish Evercade to the old-school Sega Genesis Mini, these machines will have you bleeping, blooping, and blasting back to the good old days.

Elon Musk claims plane-tracking data is a risky privacy violation. But the world loses a lot if this information disappears—and that’s already happening.

Thomas Brewster / Forbes: The DEA finds a Mexico-based methamphetamine and cocaine gang operating across the US, Mexico, Europe, and Australia used Binance to launder $15M to $40M  —  A methamphetamine and cocaine gang operating across the U.S., Mexico, Europe and Australia used the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange Binance …

Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal: Amazon agrees to settle two EU antitrust cases related to third-party sellers on its platform, won’t pay a fine, and will adhere to commitments for seven years  —  Amazon.com Inc. has agreed to settle two European Union antitrust cases related to allegations about its treatment of third-party sellers …

Tracy Wang / CoinDesk: A look at Modulo Capital, a mysterious multi-strategy hedge fund founded in 2022 and based in Albany in The Bahamas, which received $400M from Alameda Research  —  Founded in early 2022, Modulo operated out of the same luxury Bahamian condominium community where Sam Bankman-Fried and other FTX employees lived.

A magnetic slime robot that drew comparisons to the Marvel character Venom could navigate through narrow passages and fix broken circuits

Eliza Wells wrestles with deep ethical questions that have implications well beyond her field. A fourth year student in MIT’s philosophy PhD program, Wells studies morality and facilitates discussions at the Institute about ethics and technology. “I believe that philosophy can change lives. I want to help people interrogate their values so that they can […]

Whale-sized shonisaurs dominated the ocean 230 million years ago. A fossil cluster offers a fascinating glimpse at how they lived—based on where they died.

The US is offering four more at-home tests to every household. Here’s how to get yours.

This UK-based EV conversion company took the Holy Grail of American ICE sports cars, and made it suitable for modern-day racers—so we tried the prototype.

Adi Robertson / The Verge: Tumblr adds support for livestreaming to its iOS and Android apps in the US; the service is powered by video platform Livebox, which lets users tip streamers  —  Tumblr is adding support for livestreaming via the video platform Livebox.  The feature is being rolled out to US users on iOS […]

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: ImagenAI, which uses AI to help photographers edit photos and automate postproduction, raised $30M from Summit Partners, bringing its total funding to $34M  —  ImagenAI, a startup using AI to help professional photographers edit photos and automate post-production work …

Matt Levine / Bloomberg: Analysis of Elon Musk’s reported attempts to raise more money for Twitter via an equity sale at an absurd price, why his successor will be unpopular, and more  —  Oh Elon  —  Imagine taking the job!  Yesterday Elon Musk tweeted a poll asking if he should step down as “head” of […]