MIT Technology Review Narrated

Tokelau is a group of three isolated atolls strung out across the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand (of which it’s an official territory) and Hawaii. Its population hovers around 1,400 people. Reaching it requires a boat ride from Samoa that can take over 24 hours. To say that Tokelau is remote is an understatement: it was the last place on Earth to be connected to the telephone… in 1997.

Despite its size, Tokelau has become an internet giant. Until recently, its .tk domain had more users than any other country’s: a staggering 25 million. Yet only one website with a .tk domain is actually from Tokelau. Nearly all the others are used by spammers, phishers, and cybercriminals.

This is the story of how Tokelau unwittingly became the global capital of cybercrime—and its fight to fix its reputation.

This story was written by Jacob Judah and narrated by Noa - newsoveraudio.com

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

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.

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, surrounded by a vast saltwater ocean that contains more than twice as much water as is found on Earth.

In the depths of its ocean, or perhaps crowded in subsurface lakes or below icy surface vents, Jupiter’s big, bright moon could host life.

MIT Technology Review articles are narrated by Noa (News Over Audio), an app offering you professionally-read articles from the world’s best publications. To stay ‘truly’ informed on Science & Technology, Business & Investing, Current Affairs & Politics, and much more, download the Noa app or visit newsoveraudio.com.

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.

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 the density needed to keep chipmakers roughly on track.

Martin Van den Brink is the outgoing co-president and CTO of ASML. He joined the Dutch company in 1984 when it was founded and has played a major role in guiding it to it current dominant position. He explains to MIT Technology Review how the company overtook its competition and how it can stay ahead.

MIT Technology Review articles are narrated by Noa (News Over Audio), an app offering you professionally-read articles from the world’s best publications. To stay ‘truly’ informed on Science & Technology, Business & Investing, Current Affairs & Politics, and much more, download the Noa app or visit newsoveraudio.com.

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 with what it would take for AI to achieve consciousness—and whether it's even possible.

This story was written by Grace Huckins and narrated by NOA.

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 shiftshow.ai and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Credits:

This series was created by Jennifer Strong and Emma Cillekens with the support of Gideon Lichfield and Michael Reilly. Its producers have been Emma Cillekens and Anthony Green. The editors have included Gideon Lichfield, Michael Reilly and Mat Honan with support from Karen Hao and Tate Ryan Mosley. You can thank Garret Lang and Jacob Gorski for the original music and excellent sound design. The weekly art was from Stephanie Arnett with album art from Eric Mongeon. 

Thanks for listening.

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

Bjoern Schuller, professor of artificial intelligence at Imperial College London

Credits:

This episode was reported by Hilke Schellmann, produced by Jennifer Strong, Emma Cillekens and Anthony Green, edited by Mat Honan and mixed by Garret Lang with original music by Garret Lang and Jacob Gorski. Artwork by Stephanie Arnett. Special thanks to the Knight Science folks at MIT for their support with this reporting. 

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 and Anthony Green. It was edited by Mat Honan, and mixed by Garret Lang, with original music by Garret Lang and Jacob Gorski. Artwork by Stephanie Arnett.