Author: zppiot
Have you ever found yourself lost in a building that felt impossible to navigate? Thoughtful building design should center on the people who will be using those buildings. But that’s no mean feat. It’s not just about navigation, either. Just think of an office that left you feeling sleepy or unproductive, or perhaps a health center that had a less-than-reviving atmosphere. A design that works for some people might not work for others. People have different minds and bodies, and varying wants and needs. So how can we factor them all in? To answer that question, neuroscientists and architects are…
Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov hates going to the front line. The risks terrify him. “I’m really not happy to do it at all,” he says. But to perform his particular self-appointed role in the Russia-Ukraine war, he believes it’s critical to exchange the relative safety of his suburban home north of the capital for places where the prospect of death is much more immediate. “From Kyiv,” he says, “nobody sees the real situation.” So about once a month, he drives hundreds of kilometers east in a homemade mobile intelligence center: a black VW van in which stacks of radio hardware connect…
Microsoft holding cybersecurity summit Microsoft holding cybersecurity summit in wake of CrowdStrike outage 02:49 Microsoft services were unavailable for some users Thursday, with customers reporting issues accessing software tools to website functionality tracker Downdetector. “Downdetector users are reporting possible issues with Microsoft Services when connecting through AT&T Fiber in the US East region,” read a banner on the top of the site.The reports relate to issues with Microsoft 365, which encompasses a suite of business tools. Reports of issues started to spike just before 8:00 a.m. Eastern time on Thursday. By 9:00 a.m., there’d been more than 24,000 outages reported, according…
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Meet the radio-obsessed civilian shaping Ukraine’s drone defense Drones have come to define the brutal conflict in Ukraine that has now dragged on for more than two and a half years. And most rely on radio communications—a technology that Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov has obsessed over since childhood.While Flash is now a civilian, the former officer has still taken it upon himself to inform his country’s defense in all matters related to radio. Once a month, he studies the…
This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. One way to know where a field is going? Take a look at what the sharpest new innovators are working on. Good news for all of us: MIT Technology Review’s list of 35 Innovators Under 35 just dropped. And a decent number of the people who made the list are working in fields that touch climate and energy in one way or another. Looking through, I noticed a few trends that might provide some hints about the…
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Google says it’s made a quantum computing breakthrough that reduces errors The news: Google researchers claim to have made a breakthrough in quantum error correction, one that could pave the way for quantum computers that finally live up to the technology’s promise. Why it matters: One major challenge facing the field has been that quantum computers can store or manipulate information incorrectly, preventing them from executing algorithms that are long enough to be useful. The new research from…
One major challenge has been that quantum computers can store or manipulate information incorrectly, preventing them from executing algorithms that are long enough to be useful. The new research from Google Quantum AI and its academic collaborators demonstrates that they can actually add components to reduce these errors. Previously, because of limitations in engineering, adding more components to the quantum computer tended to introduce more errors. Ultimately, the work bolsters the idea that error correction is a viable strategy toward building a useful quantum computer. Some critics had doubted that it was an effective approach, according to physicist Kenneth Brown…
Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 will soon come with a novel feature aimed at a generally more mature population: Americans who suffer from hearing loss. The wireless earbuds, designed for listening to music on the go, now double as a medical device that doctors and hearing experts say could be a game changer. The devices address a number of problems that often deter Americans who could benefit from hearing assistance, namely stigma and cost, experts told CBS MoneyWatch.In late 2022, the Food and Drug Administration announced that Americans could now buy over-the-counter hearing aids, typically making the devices more affordable than those…
Now artists are fighting back. And some of the most powerful tools they have were built by Shawn Shan, 26, a PhD student in computer science at the University of Chicago (and MIT Technology Review’s 2024 Innovator of the Year). Shan got his start in AI security and privacy as an undergraduate there and participated in a project that built Fawkes, a tool to protect faces from facial recognition technology. But it was conversations with artists who had been hurt by the generative AI boom that propelled him into the middle of one of the biggest fights in the field.…
The European Union’s top court on Tuesday rejected Apple’s final legal challenge against an order from the bloc’s executive commission to repay 13 billion euros, or the equivalent of more than $14 billion, in back taxes to Ireland, bringing an end to the long-running dispute. The European Court of Justice overruled a lower court’s earlier decision in the case, saying it “confirms the European Commission’s 2016 decision: Ireland granted Apple unlawful aid which Ireland is required to recover.” The case drew outrage from Apple when it was opened in 2016, with CEO Tim Cook calling it “total political crap.” Then-U.S.…
However, nowadays the crunch is less likely to be glamorized than to be seen as a form of exploitation that risks causing mental illness and burnout. Part of the issue is that crunch time used to be just before a game launched, but now whole game development periods are “crunchy.” With games getting more expensive, companies are incentivized to make even more short-term profits by squeezing developers. But what if AI could help to alleviate game-development hell? It may already be happening. According to a recent poll by a16z, 87% of studios are using generative AI tools like Midjourney to create in-game environments. Others are…
What’s new: Roblox has announced plans to roll out a generative AI tool that will let creators make whole 3D scenes just using text prompts. Users will also be able to modify scenes or expand their scope—say, to change a daytime scene to night or switch the desert for a forest.How it works: Once it’s up and running, developers on the hugely popular online game platform will be able to simply write “Generate a race track in the desert,” for example, and the AI will spin one up. Why it’s a big deal: Although developers can already create similar scenes…
Apple kicked off its splashy “It’s Glowtime” event Monday, at which it unveiled its new iPhone 16. The event, held at Apple’s Cupertino, California, headquarters, also marks the tech giant’s foray in earnest into generative AI. Called Apple Intelligence, Apple’s AI is designed to help customers “get things done effortlessly,” the company said in a preview of the new feature. New watchesApple CEO Tim Cook kicked off the event by presenting new base and “Ultra” Apple Watch models, which start at $399 and $799, respectively. The new series 10 watch can be preordered immediately and will be available on September 10. The Ultra can…
“Organisms try not to process information that they don’t need to because that processing is very expensive, in terms of metabolic energy,” he says. Polani is interested in applying these lessons from biology to the vast networks that power robots to make them more efficient with their information. Reducing the amount of information a robot is allowed to process will just make it weaker depending on the nature of the task it’s been given, he says. Instead, they should learn to use the data they have in more intelligent ways. Simplifying software Amazon, which has more than 750,000 robots, the…
Another innovative approach is the concept of a Common Patient Data Model (CPDM). This standardized framework defines how patient data is organized, stored, and exchanged across different health-care systems and platforms, addressing interoperability challenges in the current health-care landscape. The road ahead: Continuous innovation As we look to the future, it’s clear that technological advancements in radiology will continue at a rapid pace. To stay competitive and provide the best patient care, health-care organizations must prioritize ongoing innovation and the adoption of new technologies. This includes not only IT systems but also medical devices and treatment methodologies. The health-care providers…
We live in an age of alternate facts. More and more Americans are getting their information almost entirely from outlets that echo their own political point of view. And then, of course, there’s social media, where there are few (if any) filters between users and a wide world of misinformation.For example: On July 13 a sniper came within inches of assassinating Donald Trump as he addressed an outdoor rally in Pennsylvania. Within minutes, social media was alive with uninformed speculation. One woman posted, “Who did it? I bet you it was the government themselves. They’re all on the same side.”Koppel…