Your next sexual harassment training could be in virtual reality

Virtual-reality firms promise to bring empathy to harassment training. But experts worry it could trigger survivors and do little to change bad behavior.

By Pranshu VermaApril 19, 2022

The military wants ‘robot ships’ to replace sailors in battle

The program is a direct response to countries like China, which have been building sophisticated missile technology to target ships that approach their shores. But experts warn the autonomous ships could fuel an AI naval arms race and have difficulty replicating a sailor’s workload.

By Pranshu VermaApril 14, 2022

Meet the 1,300 librarians racing to back up Ukraine’s digital archives

Over the past month, 1,300 librarians and archivists across the world, have used open source tools to back up everything from Ukraine's historical records and census data to children’s poems and Ukrainian basket weaving techniques.

By Pranshu VermaApril 8, 2022

Will Smith’s slap became crypto. Inside the wild world of memecoins.

Once considered a humorous version of cryptocurrency, memecoins are now rife with scams, critics say, making it a particularly dangerous product.

By Pranshu VermaApril 6, 2022

This snakelike robot slithers down your lungs and could spot cancer

Researchers in the United Kingdom have developed an autonomous, snakelike robot that could slither down human lungs into places that are difficult to reach, potentially improving the detection and treatment of lung cancer or other pulmonary diseases.

By Pranshu VermaApril 1, 2022

The military wants AI to replace human decision-making in battle

DARPA, the innovation arm of the U.S. military, wants artificial intelligence to make battlefield medical decisions, raising red flags from some experts and ethicists.

By Pranshu VermaMarch 29, 2022

Exploding ‘kamikaze’ drones are ushering in a new era of warfare in Ukraine

Drones that can dive bomb a target and explode on impact, sometimes without human control, are showing up on both sides of the Ukraine conflict. Experts say the weapons are here to stay.

By Gerrit De Vynck,  Pranshu Verma and Jonathan Baran March 24, 2022

The rise of the Twitter spies

The war in Ukraine has turned ordinary Twitter users into hobbyist intelligence analysts. These war sleuths could impact who’s held accountable for the conflict, or bring danger to those living through it.

By Pranshu VermaMarch 23, 2022

The future of warfare could be a lot more grisly than Ukraine

More than 1,200 miles from Kyiv, a battle is playing out over autonomous weapons. Experts say the stakes are even higher than the Russian invasion.

By Steven ZeitchikMarch 12, 2022

Tech ads at the Super Bowl offered a shiny — or is it dark? — vision of the future

Depending on your point of view, the future the ads portrayed is either a great change to be excited about or one to greatly fear.

By Steven ZeitchikFebruary 14, 2022

The NFL on display this Super Bowl will seem like a crypto-happy league. It’s anything but.

Despite what viewers will see advertised during the Super Bowl, the NFL has largely prohibited its teams from involvement with cryptocurrency, unlike the NBA.

By Steven ZeitchikFebruary 11, 2022
Perspective

This is what it feels like to attend a film festival in the metaverse

Attending the festival in virtual reality was surprisingly similar to being there in the real world.

By Steven ZeitchikFebruary 4, 2022

An electric-plane pioneer has a plan to transform package delivery. It might work.

A Vermont company hopes its electric plane, which can take off and land without a runway, will remake the way small packages are moved between warehouses.

By Steven ZeitchikJanuary 31, 2022

Former Google scientist says the computers that run our lives exploit us — and he has a way to stop them

Searching for artificial intelligence that's more in touch with your emotions.

By Steven ZeitchikJanuary 17, 2022

Futurist Amy Webb says babymaking could get crazy and the smartphone will die

The influential thinker has some bold ideas about genetic editing, modified foods and TikTok.

By Steven ZeitchikJanuary 10, 2022

The battle to prevent another Jan. 6 features a new weapon: The algorithm

A year after the attack on the Capitol, data science is better than ever at predicting insurrections. But is it good enough?

By Steven ZeitchikJanuary 6, 2022

Maybe 2022 should be the year we turn over decision-making to the AI

An increasingly popular idea is to outsource choices to algorithms, even New Year's resolutions. It doesn’t sound half bad.

By Steven ZeitchikDecember 31, 2021

On a yacht off St. Barts, the future of covid testing is taking shape

Amid huge gaps in inventory and quality, several renegade companies are looking for a superior approach to the current tangled system.

By Steven ZeitchikDecember 24, 2021

Is artificial intelligence about to transform the mammogram?

An MIT researcher has devised a radical technique: an AI that can predict breast cancer. But it’s a long climb from the lab to the real world.

By Steven ZeitchikDecember 21, 2021