The Download: how to improve pulse oximeters, and OpenAI’s chip plans
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. Why engineers are working to build better pulse oximeters Visit any health-care facility, and one of the first things they’ll do is clip a pulse oximeter to your finger. These devices, which track heart rate and blood oxygen, offer vital information about a person’s health. But they’re also flawed. For people with dark skin, pulse oximeters can overestimate just how much oxygen their blood is carrying. That means that a person with dangerously low oxygen levels might seem, […]
Why engineers are working to build better pulse oximeters
This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here. Visit any health-care facility, and one of the first things they’ll do is clip a pulse oximeter to your finger. These devices, which track heart rate and blood oxygen, offer vital information about a person’s health. But they’re also flawed. For people with dark skin, pulse oximeters can overestimate just how much oxygen their blood is carrying. That means that a person with dangerously low oxygen levels might seem, according to […]
Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.
In the biggest mass-market AI launch yet, Google is rolling out Gemini, its family of large language models, across almost all its products, from Android to the iOS Google app to Gmail to Docs and more. A new subscription plan will also give users access to Gemini Ultra, the most powerful version of the model, for the first time. Google is also sunsetting Bard, its ChatGPT rival. Bard, which has been powered by a version of Gemini since December, will now be known as Gemini too. ChatGPT, released by Microsoft-backed OpenAI just 14 months ago, changed people’s expectations of what […]
The Download: Google’s Gemini plans, and virtual power plants
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’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out. The news: In the biggest mass-market AI launch yet, Google is rolling out Gemini, its family of large language models, across almost all its products, from Android to the iOS Google app to Gmail to Docs and more. A new subscription plan will also give users access to Gemini Ultra, the most powerful version of the model, for the first time. Why it matters: ChatGPT, […]
Advanced solar panels still need to pass the test of time
This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. It must be tough to be a solar panel. They’re consistently exposed to sun, heat, and humidity—and the panels installed today are expected to last 30 years or more. But how can we tell that new solar technologies will stand the test of time? I’m fascinated by the challenge of predicting how new materials will hold up in decades of tough conditions. That’s been especially tricky for one emerging technology in particular: perovskites. They’re a class of […]
How virtual power plants are shaping tomorrow’s energy system
MIT Technology Review Explains: Let our writers untangle the complex, messy world of technology to help you understand what’s coming next. You can read more from the series here. For more than a century, the prevalent image of power plants has been characterized by towering smokestacks, endless coal trains, and loud spinning turbines. But the plants powering our future will look radically different—in fact, many may not have a physical form at all. Welcome to the era of virtual power plants (VPPs). The shift from conventional energy sources like coal and gas to variable renewable alternatives such as solar and […]
Unlocking the power of sustainability
According to UN climate experts, 2023 was the warmest year on record. This puts the heat squarely on companies to accelerate their sustainability efforts. “It’s quite clear that the sense of urgency is increasing,” says Jonas Bohlin, chief product officer for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) platform provider Position Green. That pressure is coming from all directions. New regulations, such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSDR) in the EU, require that companies publicly report on their sustainability efforts. Investors want to channel their money into green opportunities. Customers want to do business with environmentally responsible companies. And organizations’ reputations […]
The Download: China’s chiplets, and OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 watermarking
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. Why China is betting big on chiplets For the past couple of years, US sanctions have had the Chinese semiconductor industry locked in a stranglehold. Chinese companies can still manufacture chips for today’s uses, but they are not allowed to import certain chipmaking technologies, making it almost impossible for them to produce more advanced products. There is a workaround, however. A technology known as chiplets is now offering China a way to circumvent these export bans, build a […]
This Chinese city wants to be the Silicon Valley of chiplets
This story first appeared in China Report, MIT Technology Review’s newsletter about technology in China. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Tuesday. Last month, MIT Technology Review unveiled our pick for 10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2024. These are the technological advancements that we believe will change our lives today or sometime in the future. Among them, there is one that specifically matters to the Chinese tech sector: chiplets. That’s what I wrote about in a new story today. Chiplets—the new chipmaking approach that breaks down chips into independent modules to reduce design costs and improve computing performance—can help China […]
Why China is betting big on chiplets
For the past couple of years, US sanctions have had the Chinese semiconductor industry locked in a stranglehold. While Chinese companies can still manufacture chips for today’s uses, they are not allowed to import certain chipmaking technologies, making it almost impossible for them to produce more advanced products. There is a workaround, however. A relatively new technology known as chiplets is now offering China a way to circumvent these export bans, build a degree of self-reliance, and keep pace with other countries, particularly the US. In the past year, both the Chinese government and venture capitalists have been focused on […]