An AI startup created a hyperrealistic deepfake of MIT Technology Review’s senior AI reporter that was so believable, even she thought it was really her at first. This technology is impressive, to be sure. But it raises big questions about a world where we increasingly can’t tell what’s real and what's fake. This story was written by senior AI reporter Melissa Heikkilä and narrated by Noa - newsoveraudio.com
Aug 28, 2024•30 min
Though “user” seems to describe a relationship that is deeply transactional, many of the technological relationships in which a person would be considered a user are actually quite personal. That being the case, is the term “user” still relevant? This story was written by Taylor Majewski and narrated by Noa.
Aug 21, 2024•15 min
We've known of Europa’s existence for more than four centuries, but for most of that time, Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon was just a pinprick of light in our telescopes— a bright and curious companion to the solar system’s resident giant. Over the last few decades, however, as astronomers have scrutinized it through telescopes and six spacecraft have flown nearby, a new picture has come into focus. Europa is nothing like our moon. Observations suggest that its heart is a ball of metal and rock, s...
Aug 14, 2024•28 min
Despite all their runaway success, nobody knows exactly how—or why—large language models work. And that’s a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models. This story was written by senior AI editor Will Douglas Heaven and narrated by Noa ((News Over Audio), an app offering you professionally-read articles from the world’s best publications.
Aug 07, 2024•18 min
Moore’s Law holds that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit doubles every two years or so. In essence, it means that chipmakers are always trying to shrink the transistors on a microchip in order to pack more of them in. The cadence has been increasingly hard to maintain now that transistor dimensions measure in a few nanometers. In recent years ASML’s machines have kept Moore’s Law from sputtering out. Today, they are the only ones in the world capable of producing circuitry at th...
Jul 31, 2024•20 min
AI consciousness isn’t just a devilishly tricky intellectual puzzle; it’s a morally weighty problem with potentially dire consequences. Fail to identify a conscious AI, and you might unintentionally subjugate, or even torture, a being whose interests ought to matter. Mistake an unconscious AI for a conscious one, and you risk compromising human safety and happiness for the sake of an unthinking, unfeeling hunk of silicon and code. Philosophers, cognitive scientists, and engineers are grappling w...
Jul 24, 2024•32 min
Three years ago this week we launched this podcast on a mission to show the world how AI touches our everyday lives. It's been our great honor and privilege to make it through three seasons, a global pandemic, an unbelievable nineteen (19!!) award nominations, and a whole lot of tests and demos. Goodbyes are very hard to say, so instead we'll leave you with some of the show's highlights and an invitation to follow us as we continue our journey with a new show called SHIFT. Sign up for updates at...
Aug 14, 2023•27 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Hidden away in our voices are signals that may hold clues to how we’re doing, what we’re feeling and even what’s going on with our physical health. Now, AI systems tasked with analyzing these signals are moving into healthcare. We meet: Lina Lakoczky-Torres, student at Menlo College Angela Schmiede, Vice President of Menlo College. Grace Chang, CEO of Kintsugi David Liu, CEO of Sonde Health Liam Kaufman, former CEO of Winterlight Labs. Margaret Mitchell, Chief Ethics Scientist of Hugging Face Bj...
May 17, 2023•33 min•Season 4Ep. 42
AI is used in farming in some ways you might not expect, like for tracking the health of crops—from space. We travel from test farms to labs in the second installment of our series on agriculture, AI, and satellites. We Meet: Joseph Liefer, senior product manager of autonomy at John Deere Julian Sanchez, director of emerging technology at John Deere Shely Aranov, CEO of InnerPlant Rod Kumimoto, CSO of InnerPlant Credits: This episode was reported and produced by Jennifer Strong, Emma Cillekens a...
May 10, 2023•21 min•Season 4Ep. 41
In this special episode we bring you a live taping between the "Godfather of AI" Geoffrey Hinton and MIT Technology Review's Senior Editor for AI Will Douglas Heaven. This conversation was recorded at EmTech Digital, our signature AI event, in the MIT Media Lab. Credits: This episode was recorded in front of a live audience in Cambridge, Massachusetts with special thanks to Will Douglas Heaven, Amy Lammers and Brian Bryson. It was produced by Jennifer Strong and Emma Cillekens, directed by Erin ...
May 06, 2023•40 min•Season 4Ep. 40
This episode, we get an insider's look at the ongoing chip war from the person who wrote the book on it, Chris Miller, professor at Tufts University and the author of Chip War. Join us for a live conversation from the MIT Media Lab at Tech Review’s Future Compute conference. Credits: This episode was recorded and produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens and Anthony Green. We’re edited by Mat Honan and mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from Garret Lang and Jacob Gorski. A...
May 03, 2023•22 min•Season 4Ep. 39
I Was There When is an oral history project that’s part of the In Machines We Trust podcast. It features stories of how breakthroughs and watershed moments in artificial intelligence and computing happened, as told by the people who witnessed them. In this episode we meet Cognitive Scientist Gary Marcus. CREDITS: This project was produced by Jennifer Strong, Emma Cillekens, and Anthony Green. It was edited by Mat Honan and mixed by Garret Lang with original music by Jacob Gorski. The art is from...
Apr 26, 2023•14 min•Season 4Ep. 38
The term ‘smart city’ paints a picture of a tech-enabled oasis—powered by sensors of all kinds. But we’re starting to recognize what all these tools might mean for privacy. In this episode, we meet a researcher studying how this is being applied in Iran and visit one of the nation’s top smart cities, to learn how its efforts there have evolved over time. We Meet: University of Oxford and Article19 Human Rights Researcher Mahsa Alimardani City of Las Vegas Chief Innovation Officer Michael Sherwoo...
Apr 19, 2023•27 min•Season 4Ep. 37
The best definitions of AI are vague, largely lack consensus and represent a huge challenge for lawmakers and legal scholars looking to regulate it. But back to back breakthroughs and rapid adoption of generative AI tools are making it feel a lot more real to everybody else. We examine how it’s possible that alone might be enough to push conversations about ethics further into focus. We Meet: MIT Technology Review Senior AI Reporter Melissa Heikkilä Mozilla President Mark Surman IBM Chief Privac...
Apr 12, 2023•21 min•Season 4Ep. 36
This episode we meet people building next generation tools for creativity who are thinking about how these AI models should be trained and deployed in order to be both useful and fair to artists. We hear from: Artist Holly Herndon Adobe CTO Digital Media Ely Greenfield Soundful CEO Diaa El All Links: https://www.ted.com/talks/holly_herndon_what_if_you_could_sing_in_your_favorite_musician_s_voice https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/02/03/1067786/ai-models-spit-out-photos-of-real-people-and-copy...
Apr 05, 2023•19 min•Season 4Ep. 35
We're so excited this episode has been selected as a New York Festivals finalist! Please enjoy this encore edition and we'll see you back next week! Digital twins of humans capture the physical look and expressions of real humans. Increasingly these replicas are showing up in the entertainment industry and beyond and it gives rise to some interesting opportunities as well as thorny questions. We speak to: Greg Cross, CEO and co-founder of Soul Machines Credits: This episode was produced by Antho...
Mar 29, 2023•20 min•Season 4Ep. 34
I Was There When is an oral history project that’s part of the In Machines We Trust podcast. It features stories of how breakthroughs and watershed moments in artificial intelligence and computing happened, as told by the people who witnessed them. In this episode we meet Marc Raibert, the founder and chairman of Boston Dynamics. CREDITS: This project was produced by Jennifer Strong, Anthony Green and Emma Cillekens. It was edited by Mat Honan and mixed by Garret Lang, with original music by Jac...
Mar 22, 2023•16 min•Season 4Ep. 33
Computers are ranking the way people look—and the results are influencing the things we do, the posts we see, and the way we think. Ideas about what constitutes “beauty” are complex, subjective, and by no means limited to physical appearances. Elusive though it is, everyone wants more of it. That means big business and increasingly, people harnessing algorithms to create their ideal selves in the digital and, sometimes, physical worlds. In this episode, we explore the popularity of beauty filter...
Mar 15, 2023•22 min•Season 4Ep. 32
How we train fighter pilots—both real and artificial—is undergoing a series of rapid changes. In order for these systems to be useful we need to trust them, but figuring out just how, when and why remains a massive challenge. In this second of a two-part series, we look at how AI is being used to teach human pilots to perform some of the most dangerous and difficult maneuvers in aerial combat, and we experience synthetic dogfighting first hand. We Meet: Tom "T-Mac" Mackie, Director of Red6 Chris...
Mar 08, 2023•27 min•Season 4Ep. 31
A boy wrote about his suicide attempt. He didn’t realize his school's software was watching. While schools commonly use AI to sift through students' digital lives and flag keywords that may be considered concerning, critics ask at what cost to privacy. We Meet: Jeff Patterson, CEO of Gaggle Mark Keierleber, investigative reporter at The 74 Teeth Logsdon-Wallace, student Elizabeth Laird, director of Equity in Civic Technology at Center for Democracy & Technology Sounds From: "Your Heart is a ...
Mar 01, 2023•22 min•Season 4Ep. 30
Late last year the US Department of Defense successfully ran a dozen flight tests in which AI agents piloted an experimental fighter jet. We explore the program that got it there and what this milestone means. We Meet: Chase Kohler, Edwards Air Force Base Sue Halpern, The New Yorker Paul Scharre, Center for a New American Security Additional sources and sound: DARPA's AlphaDogfight Trials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzdhIA2S35w The Rise of A.I. Fighter Pilots: Artificial intelligence is bei...
Feb 22, 2023•20 min•Season 3Ep. 29
A look at how artificial intelligence is starting to be used to support the elderly. We Meet: Dor Skuler, Intuition Robotics Greg Olsen, New York State Office for the Aging Marie Defrancesco Credits: This episode was reported and produced by Jennifer Strong and Anthony Green with help from Emma Cillekens. We’re edited by Mat Honan and mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from Garret Lang, and Jacob Gorski. Art by Stephanie Arnett....
Feb 15, 2023•23 min•Season 3Ep. 28
We asked ChatGPT to summarize this episode and this is what it wrote: "In the episode, the host discussed the increasing use of AI language models like ChatGPT in newsrooms. The host explained that ChatGPT, a large language model developed by OpenAI, is being used to automate tasks such as data analysis and writing, freeing up time for journalists to focus on more in-depth reporting. The host interviewed experts in the field who highlighted the benefits of using AI technology in newsrooms, inclu...
Feb 08, 2023•19 min•Season 4Ep. 27
We're joined on stage by two startup founders working to bring automation to smaller scale farms. A live conversation from Lisbon, Portugal taped at one of the world's largest tech conferences, Web Summit. We meet: Praveen Penmetsa, CEO of Monarch Tractor Barry Lunn, CEO of Provizio AI Credits: This episode was recorded and produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Emma Cillekens and Anthony Green. We’re edited by Mat Honan and mixed by Garret Lang, with original music from Garret Lang and Jaco...
Feb 01, 2023•19 min•Season 4Ep. 26
A Roomba recorded a woman on the toilet. How did screenshots end up on Facebook? This episode we go behind the scenes of an investigation that uncovered how sensitive photos taken by an AI powered vacuum were leaked and landed on the internet. Reporting: A Roomba recorded a woman on the toilet. How did screenshots end up on Facebook? Roomba testers feel misled after intimate images ended up on Facebook We Meet: Eileen Guo, MIT Technology Review Albert Fox Cahn, Surveillance Technology Oversight ...
Jan 25, 2023•17 min•Season 3Ep. 25
Our reporting about farming, AI and satellites turned into three episodes of this podcast, which you can find linked here in the show notes, and as part of this reporting we also toured a satellite factory in downtown San Francisco, called Planet Labs. This week we bring you along for one of our audio postcards to hear how these satellites are built and tested. We meet: Jacob Stern, director of test engineering at Planet Labs Credits: This episode was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from A...
Jan 18, 2023•15 min•Season 4Ep. 24
A panel of luminaries join us live on stage at MIT Technology Review’s flagship conference, EmTech MIT, and discuss the path forward for AI research. We Meet: Will Douglas Heaven, Senior Editor of AI at MIT Technology Review Ashley Llorens, Vice President & Managing Director at Microsoft Research Raia Hadsell, Senior Director of Research and Robotics at DeepMind Yann LeCun, NYU Professor, VP & Chief AI Scientist at Meta Credits: This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at th...
Jan 11, 2023•24 min•Season 4Ep. 23
From chess to Jeopardy to e-sports, AI is increasingly beating humans at their own games. But that was never the ultimate goal. In this episode we dig into the symbiotic relationship between games and AI. We meet the big players in the space, and we take a trip to an arcade. We Meet: Julian Togelius Will Douglas-Heaven David Silver David Fahri We Talked To: Julian Togelius Will Douglas-Heaven Karen Hao David Silver David Fahri Natasha Regan Sounds From: Jeopardy 2011-02:The IBM Challenge https:/...
Jan 04, 2023•28 min•Season 4Ep. 22
AI is used in farming in some ways you might not expect, like for tracking the health of crops—from space. We travel from test farms to labs in the second installment of our series on agriculture, AI, and satellites. We Meet: Joseph Liefer, senior product manager of autonomy at John Deere Julian Sanchez, director of emerging technology at John Deere Shely Aranov, CEO of InnerPlant Rod Kumimoto, CSO of InnerPlant Credits: This episode was reported and produced by Jennifer Strong, Emma Cillekens a...
Dec 28, 2022•22 min•Season 4Ep. 21
AI is used in agriculture to precisely target weeds and optimize irrigation practices. It’s also being used in ways you might not expect, like for tracking the health of cow pastures—from space. We travel from test farms to orchards in the first of a two-part series on agriculture, AI, and satellites. We Meet: Greg Brickner, Veterinarian and grazing specialist at Organic Valley Geoff Klein, irrigation manager of Bullseye Farms John Bourne, SVP Ceres Imaging Deanna Kovar, VP of Production and Pre...
Dec 21, 2022•18 min•Season 4Ep. 20
